Why Dwell?

One + One

2011-11-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Conversation snippet from yesterday Afternoon:

George the Younger: If I had a curfew what time would it be?

Me: I have no idea, but it will surely be earlier than you will ever like.

Conversatoion snippet from last evening.....

George the Younger: Tomas and I are going out shopping on black friday. We're going to buy a mini fridge.

George the Elder: What would you do with a mini fridge?

George the Younger: Isn't the question really, what couldn't you do with a mini fridge????

In isolation - simple questions from a 15 year old boy taking place hours apart. Put them together and I have to wonder. Maybe he's craftier than we think.

Medium to Fair

2011-10-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

This morning I'm sitting in Starbucks nursing a steaming hot grande cup of awake when I am approached by a dapper looking young early-thiry-ish man in a suit. He has just rushed in the door, but does not head towards the counter to place his order. Instead, he sits down directly across from me on the edge of the nice large cushy leather chair, leans forward towards me conspiratorially and says...

"I was wondering whether you had a little face powder that I could borrow? I ran out of the house this morning and forgot to put mine on." (this is said while he is stroking his face in a manner, which I suspect is supposed to have me notice his uneven skin tone)

The way I see it, shouldn't every meterosexual male who is worth his salt carry his own personal pressed powder compact? Sadly, I had none to lend. Not a face powder kind of girl (which he would have surely noticed if he had take a second to look at the uneven skin tone of the person that he was addressing).

And, for what it's worth, we didn't even have the same skin tone.

On a different Page?

2011-09-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

I've been noodling lately that perhaps George the Elder and I ought to start watching our waistlines. You know drop those 10 pounds or so that have stealthily crept up on both of us over the last several years. Was imagining that we should start a Mediterranean Diet or some such nonsense. But over the last two weeks, it's become obvious that perhaps George the Elder and I might not be on the same page.

Behold. The last three cookbooks that George the Elder has added to his vast cookbook collection....

Donuts. Milkshakes. Ice Cream. Nuff said.

Two Teens and the Art of Thank You

2011-09-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

I'm certain that I've mentioned this before, but George the Younger and Henry share a birthday. No, they're not twins. No, they are also not biological siblings (unless by some incredibly weird coincidence their birth mother moved countries and changed nationalities between one birth and the next - doubtful). No, we do not celebrate both birthdays on one day. Yes, we do a birthday-palooza kind of thing that spans across two days.

Day One = celebrator #1 selection of birthday dinner and dessert.

Day Two = celebrator #2 selection of birthday dinner and dessert.

All presents are opened on Day one. It would be cruel to have to wait 24 hours for your presents just because it wasn't "your year" to eat first.

This year we decorated mightily and left those streamers and balloons up for the whole two days. For those of you who know me - - this was torture! But, a shout out to my favorite place to buy stuff, "Target!" Adored the little "party set" with streamers, balloons, and banners! All for some ridiculously low price of "who-cares!" You can leave out the sparkly confetti next time. Confetti is only used by stupid people who want to clean it up out of their homes for the next decade. I'm just saying.

This year means we transition forever in to no-longer-having-a-less-than-teenager-in-our-lives. Henry 13. George 15. Next birthday = potential driver's license. Time is marching on. and on. and on.

Henry is Celebrator #1 in 2011.
Dinner: Porcupine Balls (not from real porcupines)
Dessert: Creme Brulee

George the Younger is Celebrator #2 in 2011
Dinner: Shannon's Island Pork Tenderloin
Dessert: Classic Baskin Robins Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake

Just a couple of observations re: dinner and dessert selections;

Henry chose Creme Brulee this year. He is getting to be the King of unique birthday dessert choices. Last year we did Boston Cream Pie. This year we had to buy a blow torch. Having now used a blow torch, I believe that there should be an entire cookbook dedicated to cooking things with small hand held fire makers.
Creme Brulee is tasty. It has a couple of problems when used as birthday cake. One: inserting candle into recently bronzed sugar is impossible. Two: Do not try to light candles with blow torch (even though it's going to be right on the counter calling to you). Candle Wax burns much more quickly than sugar. A lot more quickly. Puddle of blue wax on top of beautifully browned sugar is not aesthetically appealing.
George the Elder was personally insulted that George the Younger chose one of Shannon's recipes for his birthday dinner. Historically, George the Younger selects some pasta dish made by Dad. George the Elder took his decision personally. Dad did, however, choke down the delicious Island Pork Tenderloin while nursing his broken heart.

Shannon came to celebrate again this year. HURRAH!

I try to make the boys write thank you notes for the gifts that they receive from others. They've been writing these a few years now. First we started them off with the fill-in-the-blank variety. You know:

Dear ____, Thank you for the _____. Love, _______

They used a template that looked just like this and had to write them out as soon as they could manage it - - 5ish, I think.

This morphed in to a more sophisticated template of:

Dear ___, Thank you for the _____. It was the perfect gift because _____. Love, ______

These days, there is no template. They are simply reminded over and over and over and over again to write their notes. Saturday, I finally got out their notes out of the boxes, placed them on the dining table and announced that NO-one was doing NO-thing the entire weekend unless the damned notes were done. Amazingly, faced with missing fun-with-friends or just sitting on the couch watching Mythbusters - - the notes were written! Huzzah!!!

[SPOILER ALERT: If you are my mother, my sister, my father-inlaw or my daughter and do not want to read your thank-you note PRIOR to receiving it in the mail in two short days...STOP READING RIGHT HERE. If you are not my mother, my sister, my father-in-law or my daughter, please continue reading to get a glimpse of what years of thank you note writing has morphed in to...]

Remember, the template is: Dear X. Thank you for X. Insert personal sentence regarding the gift or that person. Love, X....

Hello Sailor.

2011-09-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

And, nothing says "old lady" quite like no lips at all....

My grandma used to always say that putting on a little lipstick would make everything better. I thought she was speaking metaphorically. A little lipstick = a happy day. Turns out that she was actually simply articulating an indisputable truth of the aged. A little lipstick = bona fide visual lips. Nuggets of wisdom by older women are usually a little tricky that way.

Perhaps the metaphor aspect was just an illusion. A happy coincidence to lure you dreamily in the harsh reality that lies deeeper and darker. I mean at any age a women could have a happy day without lipstick. And they could have a happy day with lipstick. It's just that as you get older, without the lipstick other people have no way to know you are happy because they are entirely unable to discern whether you are smiling or not. They cannot see your lips. Because they have merged seamlessly into your face. So, OF COURSE wearing lipstick makes everything better. Or something like that. Whatever. What I'm getting at here is that I have no lips and I feel like my Grandmother didn't exactly spit it out that without lipstick you have no friggin lips at a certain age.

Of course, "I have no lips" is simply figurative. I still have some lips. If I had no lips I would have nothing to apply lipstick upon. What I have are reduced-mostly-invisible-to-the-naked-eye-50+-year-old-lips. The kind my grandmother doubtlessly had when she spoke her words of "wisdom."

Something must be done. What I need to do now are two things.

I must now never leave the house without lipstick when doing any activity that does not require a leash, a dog and a baseball hat. I fear that should I do this, I may find myself in a matter-of-life-and-death situation where only I have the information necessary to stop the tragic death of a child - - and the only person capable of physically saving the dying child is a deaf person who can only read lips. In a face devoid of readable lipage - - the child would certainly perish. I can't have that on my conscience. (And yes, if you are paying attention I am clearly going to accept that risk while walking the dog. I don't know why. Just lazy I guess.)
Go and buy some better everyday lipstick. This, sadly, requires a visit to the make-up counter. I detest the make-up counter. All that youth with all that make-up spackled on - judging us old folks with wrinkles and aversions to 27 individually applied layers of water-proof mascara. It's hellish. But, I need some "normal lip color." Dismally, I suspect that this not an available shade choice: Normal Lip Color. Instead, I will be forced to consider and slog through various varieties of berries, a smattering of spices and most likely a standard fruit or two before , finally, in utter frustration I just roll-over and buy what the lady says looks good. Subsequently, I will discover that I hate it. This will happen while I am driving the car and pull down the little mirror at a stop light to apply slightly more "Dazzling Berry" to my non-existent lips and I will notice that in the light of day the color makes my lips look like semi-dried earth worms instead of lucious berries. But I will wear it because if not children could die and all that. Sheesh.

Oh yes -- and that last thing - - I will now begin reciting the ~~lie~~ wisdom-of-the-aged to all my younger relatives - - daughter, cousins, nieces - -

"A little lipstick makes everything better"

Let's see how damn long they think it's simply a metaphor....

Emmy's 2011 - better late than never....

2011-09-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Watched the Emmys the other nite. Of course I did. Sucker for those awards shows and all that I am. Set the DVR, planned pick-ups and deliveries of two teenage boys to coincide with the viewing. Even set the DVR to include the pre-show red carpet so I could check out all that glamor, all that glitz, all those poor fashion choices. Best laid plans and all that.

Thanks to the poor sportsmanship of the network (not to mention the 49'ers and the Cowboys) seems that there is a definite heirarchy to what American wants to watch. Red Carpet vs. sweaty large men pushing and shoving each other in to over time. Me? I'm for the red carpet. The rest of America? Heavily padded freakishly large men and a ball. I lost.

Still, when I'm wrong I say I'm wrong and 20 minutes in to the truncated version of "Red carpet by Fox", I sadly admitted that the network was absolutely right in their choice. I didn't have a single clue who Fox's red carpet announcers were, and worse - - they were horribly bad. Were they behaving badly because they also felt usurped by the game coverage? Who knows, but I am SO glad that I was in the position to fast forward. Yuck. 20 minutes of nuttin honey. Disappointment.

So, on with the show:

Jane Lynch was an adroit host. Thought she'd get a little more "Gervaise", but heard that the network pulled in her reigns a scosh in rehearsals. Too bad. She can be very funny with the right material. Given a little more leash and I think she would have been fabulous!
What was with the cut-down-to-there dresses this year? Julie Bowen (modern family), Anna Panquin, Kristin Wigg, and yes, even the daughter from modern family (Ariel Winter) was showing was too much of her tender 13 years. And, while Julie Bowen claims that she just naturally has the figure of a 14 year old - - I still think a couple o'snickers bars a day ought to help with the bony-breast plate thing she's got going between her wee breasts.
What in tarnation was Julianna Margulies wearing? Resembled a mid-century lampshade with a pleather diner bench skirt. Tragic. And I LIKE mid-century. Just not furniture as clothes.
Dear Zooey Deschanel - - Did you miss your prom as a child? And I might suggest that using the ribbon from your last year's xmas gift from your mom might as a belt not have been the best choice no matter how "recycle/reuse" you were going for.
It it probable that many people had to run to look up the word, "grandiloquent" used in Julian Fellowes acceptance speech. If you were one of them, be aptly forewarned. Only brits can say that word and not be considered total knobs. Same with the word "dodgy." Oh and the word "knob."
Did Guy Pearce borrower Martin Scorses' glasses? The proof in in the photos....

Who doesn't love the song Hallelujah? Sung by 4 Canadian tenors. Teared up a little at all the Moms we lost this year.
Whether spur o' the moment or planned far in advance, the contestants for the lead actress comedy were spot on and jeepers they are all funny. I was kinda hoping Melissa would win. And so pleased she got a tiara. Who doesn't want a tiara? I don't watch Mike and Molly, so I like to pretend she was winning for Gilmore Girls. I was in love with that show. I watched all 7 seasons in the year that Big George was working in London and we were stuck in Germany. Kept me away from the schnitzel...
And last, for those of you, older than say 20, who were totally perplexed by the musical number of the night starring Lonely Island and Michael Bolton......the one that included a somewhat terrifying mommy-make-the-bad-men-stop segment with William H Macy.... I have a 15 year old that explained it all to me. Here is the Lonely Island video upon which the farce was based. This doesn't explain away the lap dance for William H - - or the "for everyone who's had sex in the last millennium", or the "better with three" parts - - but it helps.

In or Out?

2011-08-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

There's a scene in "A League of Their Own" when Tom Hanks finally steps out of his drunken stupor and decides to start managing the team. He and Genna Davis simultaneously give "Marla Hooch" conflicting hand signs from the dugout about what she should do at the plate. Marla steps in the batters box. She steps out of the batters box. She steps in the batters box. She steps out of the batters box. Finally, she swings away.

I was reminded of this film clip, not because I just saw the film again the other day AND cried at the end again the other day (so sue me) - - but because the whole concept of stepping in and stepping out of something- - or more precisely WHEN to step in and WHEN to step out of something was I've been wrestling with these past two days.

The story goes like this. George the Younger texts me on his way home from soccer practice on Tuesday night with these words, "mom! I didn't make the team!" I text back casually, "Which team?" Not that I'm an idiot - - of course I knew he was at soccer practice so I was referring to A SOCCER team-- but the question was more of did he not make the Varsity team (a looooong stretch since he is first a freshman and second he's no Pele) or did he not make the JV team? He texts back "I didn't make any team."

I found the context of this text confusing. Why, you might ask? Kids get cut from sports teams all the time. And didn't I just say he's no Pele? This kid is a baseball player. He only plays soccer every summer at camp. End of story. The basis of my befuddled state was the advertised "no cut" sports policy his newly attended high school.   The basic philosophy is that the boys get to try lots of different things. It means your kid gets on the team. It doesn't mean he gets to play in games, in fact he could ride the bench hard all season long - but he does get to attend practice with the team and if in some weird "Rudy" moment he actually triumphantly takes the field, more power to him.

So George the Younger gets home from soccer practice thirty minutes later. He walks in the door with devastation embedded in his very being. He's shell shocked. This boy is an athlete. This boy has never before been cut by a team. He just got named MVP of Color War at camp for his athletic contribution by his fellow campers. He didn't know what to do with himself. So, the face of this terrible news, combined with the emotional stress of starting a new school, exacerbated by the lack of sleep given his new schedule (no red-blooded human teenager should have to get up at 6:00a.m.) - - and well dang, I had a living breathing basket case on my hands. He didn't understand how he had been cut. Cue the tears. "I picked this school so I could try different stuff." Giant angst. "I'm not going to play on the baby team!!!" What baby team? What was he talking about??

As it turns out, there was going to be a "baby team." The non-upset-wounded-pride-14-year-old title for this team is technically the "Developmental Team." How did I find this out? Well, here's the stepping IN part: I sent a very nice email to the director of athletics and the head of school. [Yikes! Was this the first step in "helicopter parenting" during my son's high school years??? Egad, I hope the hell not. I hold distain for those kind of parents.]  But, I needed to understand if we misunderstood the school policy - - its sports philosophy - as it were. Kindly, the school responded quickly - first a nice email from the athletic director (containing a forwarded email that had been send out the weekend before describing how they needed to have a 3rd developmental squad because they had an unprecedented number of boys go out for the soccer team this year. I didn't get this email because George the Younger gave them the wrong email address) and then I had a nice phone call from Shuja (not the head of school, but the admissions guy who we knew from applying) - - swell guy! All was well - - no philosophy changes. All good., except I still needed to deal with my son's disappointment on being assigned to the "Development Team" - - a team that would still play a couple o' games, and who's members would be able to move up to the JV as their skills increased. But it's still a bitter pill to swallow when you're the only boy in your carpool not to have made the JV or Varsity teams. That stings, but he would survive it.

Now for the stepping OUT part.  I told George the Younger I was going to ask the school about philosophy -- which I did. But, to get the answer to the "what the heck happened to me and why didn't I make the team???" question - well, that was something only the coach would know. The coach conversation was something he needed to do. I don't talk to coaches. He's not my coach. He's his coach.  If players have questions or want to talk - - the player needs to do it The mom (or dad) needs to stay the heck out of it. He said he would do it at the next practice.

Yesterday, I head to the school for a meeting on an entirely different subject. George the Younger is waiting there in the courtyard - - still looking a tad dejected - - but now he's obviously been bolstered up by his new group of homies who are similarly incensed that George did not make the team (I'm beginning to "get" the whole boy-brotherhood thing. They're like tiny little packs of wolves they way they already hang together). I told him what I had found out from my research and we talked about how he was going to couch his comments to the coach (i.e. don't be a whiny baby - ask what skills you need to improve to make the team - find out what he's looking for - be mature about it). Just then his phone buzzes. And seconds later a smile the size of the world appears on his face....

Why? The text is from a fellow freshman soccer player currently getting ready to start the first JV game of the season out at Treasure Island (where George the Younger is NOT since he didn't make the team). What does the text say? Something to the tune of "WHERE R U??? You're supposed to be starting!!!" (I'm sure the full words were not spelled out- - but I got no skills in text-ish.). My reaction to the text? WTF? (non-verbal of course)

Turns out that the coach had meant to put George the Younger's name on the list. He just forgot. He didn't transfer the names correctly from one sheet of paper to another. So at 4:15 we head across the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island. The normal 15 minute ride - - stretches to 40 minutes or beyond with traffic - - but we're pretty lucky and make it in 30.   George the Younger has no soccer gear with him, he cannot play in the game. But he's there to talk to the coach. Which he does. Which makes him smile. Cause yes, he was on the team. The world, in his estimation, had righted itself.

I remember now - - this High School parenting thing. The still-having-to-step-in for the "administrative stuff" and the needing-to-step-out while they learn to take care of their own business. All of this would have been a non-issue if George the Younger had simply "stepped-UP" the night the team announcements were made and talked to the coach right then and there. A little life lesson learned. He still might have gotten the news that he was on the "developmental squad" - but he would have had facts to deal with instead of his imagination gone wild ("I will prolly NEVER be able to play sports at SH until my senior year when they HAVE to take me even if I SUCK", "I'm not going to have any friends since ALL my friends are on the team and I am NOT!"). But that is hard to do. Hard for an adult. Especially hard for a 14 year old faced with bad news.

So, my time in the batting box begins. Step in. Step out. It would be a whole lot easier if I were getting hand signals from the dugout.

Compare and Contrast

2011-08-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

This morning George the Younger donned his new high school "uniform" apparel and headed out in to the foggy San Francisco morning for his first day of High School.

I managed to get him to stand still for a moment to capture the moment as he rushed out the door at 7-flipping-a.m. Sadly, the photos were not well focused. I was rushing since he really didn't feel the moment needed historical photographic documentation. I explained that ALL "first days of school" have been duly documented in his life, so would he just stand the heck still and let me take the damn photo? He acquiesced and smiled. And then, in a blur he rushed out the front door to catch his carpool.

I spent the next hour researching photoshop techniques and managed to cobble together his first days of kindergarten and high school. Can you say "nostalgic?"

The differences between the two "first days" are obvious. He's taller and he's sporting a duster. He has a heavier backpack full of bigger books with more words and less pictures. He won't get a happy-sunshine-sparkly-rainbow name tag when he gets to his classroom (at least I am certain he is praying he doesn't!). He doesn't need to carry a nap mat and I'm doubtful he will get a morning snack. He didn't need me or George the Elder to hold his hand on the way to school. Although, I still helped him pack his backpack last night and watched him open and close the lock for his locker several times to ensure proficiency. Miss Barbara will not be there to greet him with a snappy morning song strummed on her zither.

But the two photos side-by-side remind me that he's still our same sweet guy inside - - off to make new school friends and conquer new adventures. And Mr. Farrel, the headmaster, will be there to greet him with a grown-up handshake welcoming him to his first official day as a freshman at Stuart Hall High School.

I'm a bit misty over the whole thing. Can you tell?

When Rocks Fly

2011-07-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Were you aware that a "rock" is classified as a "boulder" when said rock is simply too large for a person to move?   In other words, all boulders are rocks, but only some rocks are boulders. (Are you getting that creepy feeling like you're taking a university logic class yet??) I didn't know this. I know it now. And I know it because George the Elder and I bought a boulder. Of course we did.

We went to a local stone quarry a couple of weekends ago to buy a bunch of smallish landscaping rocks to cover up all the dirt that still surrounds the front of the CMR.   Since the whole kitandkaboodle of landscaping is going to be Phase 27.5 of the CMR expected to occur sometime in the second millennium - we needed a little somethin somethin between now and then. See the dirt just kicks up and gets my newly painted house all groady. Can't have that happening for the next 7 thousand light years.  So, we head down to this cool quarry to pick out some rocks. We bought a couple of tons of them. Literally. Two. tons. of. rocks. Turns out that rocks are pretty heavy. And while we were strolling around the stone yard, we decided to buy - - well, the boulder. A 1.5 ton boulder to be exact. Most people buy gum or mints as impulse buys. Us? A bronze boulder.

We had it all delivered. Wasn't that nice of them? We could have rented our own couple o'ton dump truck - but we took (what we thought then) was the easy way out. "Please come and put everything where it belongs."   The morning of the delivery I was so excited. No more dirt around the CMR!! Cool boulder in the front too.!! But, alas. So goes the best laid plans. The boulder and the rocks could only be put on the driveway. Dang it.

Now moving two tons of little rocks is not a particularly unsolvable problem. This is why we have sons and husbands. To solve these problems. They take buckets full of little rocks garnered from the big crate of rocks and spread them around. Lots and lots of buckets full. About 100 trips of buckets full to be exact. Are they happy to do this? No. But do they do it? Yes. But a big bronze boulder? That would required some heavier lifting.

We briefly considered the logistics of hiring manual laborers to do the deed. I mean - -a whole scad of not-so-big Cambodians built a lot of temples in Siem Reap with much larger stones than these and a tremendously long distance to move them. The same could be said for the pyramids. I mean - - amazing right? Big stones, moved long distances, placed strategically way up high! Yet, without minions of workers - generations full of minions - we realized we needed to take a different tact. SF frowns on toys with happy meals. Disposable generations of manual laborers? I don't think so.

So, we went all machine age on the problem and we hired a crane. Who knew you could do this? You simply get on Yelp. Search for crane operators. Rule out the ones that only do sky scrapers and -- you get three bids. Neato. Keeno. We chose the cheapest one. We also chose the one that didn't feel the need to pay the city of SF $600 for a street operating permit. Getting my rock moved AND not paying the city? Marvelous!

In the end moving the boulder cost roughly the same amount as the boulder itself. Go figure. Yet, we love our little boulder bench. I hope we love it. It's never going anywhere ever again.

Bronze boulder and .25 tons of the stones left on the driveway

GIANT crane arrived for hoisting.

Crazy nice crane operator "Sean" dons his hard hat and we're off to the races!
And, no. I did not partake of his erection services. Thank you.

First we pick up boulder from drive way. I am the assistant.
I get to place the hoists on the rock.
I do not get a hard hat. I am disappointed.

Boulder is put on the back of the crane bed for a short trip around to
the front of the CMR!

"X" marks the spot for the Boulder.
Excellent markage by my very own tennis shoe.
We are professionals!

With large crane now repositioned - we heft that bad johnny up.
I am standing ready to give the hand signals - oh
except I am taking pictures too!

Boulder coming towards me! It seems much bigger in person when a
1.5 boulder is moving towards your head. I put the phone
away at this point and start waving my arms.

After much hand signalling the boulder is finally mostly where we want it.
Actually, it's definitely where we want it since it cannot
ever be moved from here :). Ever.

Out of my League

2011-07-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I headed down to that hallowed hall of learning named "Stanford." Really nice place. I went there to drop off Henry who will be immersed in all things "physics" with many other like minded middle schoolers. We used to call those "like-minded" kids "Nerds." Now, most of us call them our bosses (heh heh heh). But, I digress.

I, myself, learned a few things about Standford yesterday during my short visit there. I learned that Stanford has the largest contiguous university campus in the world. They also have the second largest video library - - surpassed only by Netflix. I learned that our tour guide, a rising sophomore, had a great deal of information to impart regarding his personal engineering academic pursuits, the hours a college freshman keeps, his hometown (DC), what "not-to-do" with regards to sticking around campus at Thanksgiving (a real yawn-fest), what dorm he will be staying in next year, the age of most of the woman in his future dorm (seniors! Out of his league!) and his fervent hope that he, and his 12 other fellow sophomores, will "rule the place" as the year progresses. All of these little tidbits were divulged as we passed by a number of important and large Stanford edifices for which I have no additional knowledge of post-tour than I did pre-tour. But, I will die knowing that you should NEVER, NEVER EVER, take a 10:00 a.m. class (the earliest class offered at this revered institution of knowledge) because that's just BRUTAL. Excellent advice for the large crowd of middle-schoolers who were the intended audience.

I was also reminded that Henry (and his ilk) are the smart ones. We parents are simply the ones that fill out the paperwork. Having filled out this paperwork does not make you the smart one. It may possibly indicate that you are organized and have excellent skills in ensuring that your child's name and address are correctly spelled and that his test scores are adequately attached to the application. This should not be confused with smart. Smart is when I asked Henry's new roommate whether he liked Physics or not and he blithely replied, "I LOVE physics. I am a huge fan of Michio Kaku, especially his work on Hyperspace and Parallel Worlds." Was this kid 12 or just really short with good skin? Henry nodded sagely and retored, "I like him TOO!" My mouth just hung slightly agape. Them = smart. Me = Who the hell is Michio Kaku???

I will miss our budding physics PHD canidate while he is gone. But he's gonna have a bang-up time swimming around in the super endowed gene pool of science for the next couple of weeks. Me suspects that he will return home full of mind boggling factoids about atoms and Einstein and Quantum field theory. All good. Unless you are me and will be forced to smile and nod as if I have one teensy bit of understanding as to what in Kaku's hell he is talking about.

Post-Mortem

2011-07-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

"Moving" means things other than packing and unpacking, finding new digs, and starting a new routine - -new grocery stores, new schools, new jobs, new restaurants. It also means that you have to leave old friends and try to make some new ones. This part - - well, this part can be hard. Especially when those friendships don't thrive given the distance.

What I've come to realize is that sometimes the friends that are the "best" while you're in a place, living a certain piece of your life - turn out to have a shelf life. And, amazingly, sometimes the friends that you never expected to endure are those that stand the test of time. The former are a bitter pill, the later are a real gift.

I've recently had to come to terms with recognizing that a "best-ie" friendship isn't going to make the long haul. I keep wondering what happened. I wonder if it's something specific that I did. Is it that I didn't call often enough? Is it that our "new" non-expat like isn't a spectacular match to a continuing expat life? Is it that my newly chosen profession of "mom" doesn't suit? I dunno. But, whatever it is - - the friendship seems to have run its course. Sad. Who'd've thunk it? Not me. But there it is. And I think at this point stretching out the post-mortem will serve little good.

Has this ever happened to you? You expect a friendship to grow old with you, but for no known reason (at least to you) the friendship peters out? Fizzzzzzzzle.

I will mourn this one and miss her.

A Chronicle of Commencement

2011-06-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, I am late to the game in reporting on the high falooting graduation festivities marking the end of George the Younger's elementary days. Partly this is because I am a lazy procrastinating nere do well. The other part is because I had a little trouble getting behind the whole 8th grade graduation concept. My single question - - what exactly is it that he has done to merit a procession, recession, commencement speech and diploma - - all gussied up with a fancy buffet lunch and evening party? I never did get an answer to that question - - but come the day of commencement, I was there to witness the event. I even teared up a little...

OK, so it was more like burst in to tears, but it wasn't the graduation that did it - - it was the suit. And the tie. And the dress-up shoes. There I was rushing around trying to get my own self ready and in walked George the Younger looking like - - well, he was looking like a MAN. Caught me unawares, even though I was there when he bought the suit, and the tie, and the dress-up shoes. Something happened when he put all the pieces together and instead of my little boy, he morphed in to something that could have a real girl friend, a drivers license and job. Sniffle sniffle.

All the cool boys hung out together before the procession. Given all the suits it either had to be a funeral or graduation. The fedora and the purple shiny shirt (back row) help to rule out the funeral...

Aunt Deb came up for the event, but we failed miserably at our heretofore unblemished record of "getting the best seats" at large community events. Believe me, at all of Shannon's prior graduations, seating was PRIORITY and Deb was leading the charge. I think we were one of the first 10 people seated at the RISD graduation last year. We are professionals. We are pros. We were late. Dang. Blemished record. Graduation 2013 we are going to be on top of things.

Not only were we late, but our default seats were on the wrong side of the auditorium to get any photos of the procession. We were further on the wrong side of the auditorium to get any photos of the recession. I (of course) mentioned this to the head of school for future graduations. Down one side, up the other. Have to give all the parents a fightin' chance. And even tho there are no photos, there was the elementary school band playing pomp and circumstance (but again, I still was not clear on why all the pomp - - they managed to read The Giver and take Algebra 1 - - that's it...) and the classe arrived to take their seats on the stage - - all 31 members of the class of 2011. Huzzah!!!

This is George the Younger being lauded by his science teacher. Each of the kids got a couple moments of praise from one of the teachers at the school. It was a nice touch. I would add this caveat: Dear Teachers, You are supposed to be talking about the kids - - not yourself. Keep this in mind next year when you are blathering on about your homeland in Puerto Rico, your prowess as a music teacher, or your looong tenure at the school. We. Don't. Care. Focus. Talk. About. The. Student. Okay?

The next phase of the graduation ceremony (now heading into hour 2.5) was the "Showcase of Great Things I can do" presented by the students themselves. We had a tap dancer, a couple of singers (loosely defined), we had juggling (yes we did!), we had poetry recited, we had bands and we had a lot of slide shows. Slide shows were clearly the easiest way to meet this particular showcase o' talent requirement. George the Younger choice? Slide show. This is him introducing it. It was pretty good. He also used the music "Like a Slide show" to accompany slide show - apropos, oui? And if you are tired of hearing the words "slide show" think about watching a dozen of them.

Requisite diploma and official diploma handshake from head of school.

And then the celebrations: Kids with candy leis....

George the Younger with his own "Miss Susie" (Blind Side reference for the uninformed") - - we love her! She loves G and made a GIANT impact in his life these past 3 years. We owe her big time. Too bad her eyes are shut. Hazard of taking photos without your glasses on. The picture looked good to me when I took it. Course, I couldn't see it at all, but it looked super!

A "dance with your mom" moment at the evening party...

And although this isnt' really what was going on - - check out the look of horror and embarrassment that seems to be caused by George the Younger having to watch his mother dance. We're to the left of the photo and he is behind me. Technically, he was reacting to something his friend Griffin was saying - - but wowza - - it sure does look like I am scarring him for life.

And that - - was graduation 2011. George the Younger? Officially a high school freshman. Mom? Still wondering what the diploma says....

Rides of Passage

2011-06-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

There comes a time in every teenagers life when Mom is just tired of driving him around. Not old enough for a driver's license yet. But clearly old enough to ~~want~~ need to break out and do some exploring. So what's a 14 year old guy to do? The obvious answer? Learn to ride the bus.

George the Younger embarked on his first solo SF Municipal transport adventure today. I know. Some may say that it's about damn time. But, I'm a little protective of my chickens, and to be honest, George the Younger isn't generally much of a risk taker. Getting home by himself = taking risks. So, today I forced his hand.

He wanted to go to Japantown after summer school with some new buddies from The Hall. Something tells me he completely anticipated me offering to come and pick him up when he was finished. Instead, I told him he needed to get himself home. George the Elder and I took bets this morning that he wouldn't go through with it. Shock the shit out of me - - but he did it!

Japantown to our neighborhood requires a several block walk to the right street, catching the right bus, getting off at the right bus stop, finding the way to the underground muni station and getting on the correct outbound train. He's done the train before by himself - - but the rest was a virgin voyage. It would be stellar if I could say that he managed this journey solely on the single (albeit) very long text that I send him early this morning - - but still. Thanks to three slightly panicked calls to me (which side of the street? where is Geary? What is downhill? which train? There's a fork in the road!!! Which way do I go??? You said 3-4 blocks and it's past 4...), one call to Dad when I apparently did not answer the phone immediately (which side of the street does the bus come on?), and some help from a kind stranger when he found himself heading the wrong way while walking - - I finally got the text that said: "I'm on the train" Hurrah!

The most excellent news is that this route is the very same that he could take to school starting in the fall. When I mentioned this, he looked aghast - what do you mean you won't always drive me and pick me up when it's SCHOOL? What he doesn't realize is that this cardinal expedition is the first baby step in his eventual ticket to freedom-from-mom. This particular light will go on sometime in the middle of next year when he recognizes that my schedule no longer meets his need to hang out places with his buddies. Or girls.

I'll admit that it's a trifle wistful on my part. George the Younger is moving further out in to the world. Taking the bus all by himself and finding his way home. When he came in the door I gave him a big hug and congratulated him. A hug containing both my joy and my heartache. It's my job to make sure he only saw the joy.

If at first you...

2011-06-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

don't succeed, try again and then crush the flip video underneath your foot while stomping up and down. Flip Video was another EPIC fail today. Filmed some and then the camera decided it didn't like me and wouldn't film anymore. Obviously, when the computer says "Server Rejected" that should be translated to "Stoopid person using camera: Give it the hell up would ja!!!"

I decided to go the good old fashioned route and just take some photos. It's not as fun as a moving picture, it doesn't get cool music to go along with it, but it does have the advantage of getting people off my ever lovin arsky about putting up some photos. You know who you are!!!

All the "fancy schmancy decor" is not done yet (a picture is worth a thousand and all that), but it's getting there bit by bit. "Fancy Schmancy Decor" in our case refers to whatever it is that we are doing in the CMR. We're in to mishmash. Live with it or don't come visit.

The laundry room photo is clear indication that there are some places in the CMR that are being used as indoor garages :) The garage -- for which there is no photo - - well let's just say we can get one car and one motorcycle in there. End. of. story.

I did find that taking movies and photos inside the CMR is a bit tricky doodle given all the windows. So much light coming in is good for living, bad for a crappy photographer such as myself. But, you'll get the gist.

Enjoy....

Almost, Kinda...FAIL

2011-05-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, I know....where have I been? What have I been doing? Awww, you know. Just sitting around eating bonbons catching the last Oprah show and all that. If wishes were horses....

But the other day I got up off my duff and at the request of several, I once again put hand to flip video. Over the last many days I have tried and cajoled, uploaded and canceled that frickin flip video about a billion times. Notice how it is not attached to this post. I am a flip failure. I even had my IT God, George the Elder try to copy it to Mother (our big giant computer upstairs that dims the lights in SF when it is turned on) and it was still a fail. Fail, fail, fail.

Last time I did this I held the camera, shot the video, uploaded the video, added some music, made a movie and uploaded it to the blog. Like falling off a horse. About now, that same horse is now running aimlessly without a tether. Dang.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try and shoot it again. Who knows, maybe I corrupted the file by holding the camera incorrectly. You know, like in my own hand or something. Think good thoughts and stay tuned. This can be done....

Black and Blue

2011-05-19T21:47:00.000-07:00

While I'm not quite ready to share interior photos, things are definitely shaping up around here at the CMR. It's slowly beginning to feel more like home again, and I'm hopeful that it won't be too terribly long before I stop slamming into my bedroom dresser every single damn time I exit the bathroom. It's this weird combination of "knowing" the house from before and things being different now. Big furniture used to be "there" and now it's "here." Some things are familiar and other things - - well - they cause you to have a proliferation of really superior looking purple/yellow bruises on hip bones, shins and arms. This bruising can be socially problematic.

I went to see a dermatologist the other day to get a little doohickey removed from under my eye. While I was there he suggested a full body check (white girl, aged 50+, used to hang out in the sun, and all that..) He checked out all the inches of my lily white wrinkly body and then became oddly silent. I think he was thoughtfully composing exactly what he wanted to say... something on the lines of: Does your husband beat you and did I know that there were organizations to help me get out of that abusive relationship?? Nice to know he's not only concerned with my dermatological well being, whether or not George The Elder is a wife beater. All good.

CMR Moving Day Photos: I am not a tech Goddess

2011-05-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

What did I learn today?? I learned how to embed a Picasa Slide Show in to my Blog. These kinds of things make me happy. Why? Because I am a tech-dope. My mother knows more about operating her computer than I do. If something should happen to George the Elder I am TOAST. The Geek Squad will need to move in to the guest room permanently. I am awful.

But today I "learned" - - all on my own. One - I googled how to do it. Two: I watched a You-Tube video. Three: It actually worked. My whole day has been made by a 4 minute tutorial. Small life, eh?

And so.....drumroll please..... Please find the embedded slide show of the CMR the morning of our move in. It doesn't take a genius to know that it no longer looks like this. Instead it is filled with many things and most of those things are sitting where they are not supposed to be. I am making progress - - slowly...very slowly.... but with any luck I will whip out the flip camera over the next few days and you can see it "with stuff" - -

(NOTE: If it looks just like a black box, click on it. If you can't see the comments click on the text box next to the person... OK...maybe I'm not as good as I thought....)

It's a Date and Spinal Tap

2011-05-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

I went on a date last night with George the Elder. We went to hear some live music. We grabbed a bite before the show while the boys stayed home and ate pizza.

"Wowza!", you are thinking. "How amazingly sweet for your husband to plan an evening out on Mother's Day!" Now, you know how much I love George the Elder, and many of you know that he loves me too. But, those of you who know him best would also know that while he is sweet and kind and generous - - remembering Mother's Day in ADVANCE would not be one of his hallmarks. Nope. This musician just happened to be playing in SF on Mother's Day. George the Elder likely realized this on Saturday morning. Still, it was pretty serendipitous. So, Go Him.

We only go hear live music occasionally. And most of those occasions are to see artists that George The Elder would like to see. More often than not - - and last night was no exception - - it's a BIG surprise to me who this person is. It's also a big surprise as to what they are playing since I have never heard of these people I would not have them on my i-pod play list. That's assuming I owned an i-pod which I don't since I have this really weird thing about putting earphones in my ears and not being able to hear anything around me. I find it all really hinkey. Another story for another day.

As we were waiting for the music to begin, I asked George the Elder, "what does this guy look like?" He declined to answer - - he wanted me to see for myself. This is William Fitzsimmons....

Big Beard. Bald Head.

A little disconcerting (get it? dis-concerting??? - - never mind). On stage walks what can only be described as a cross between mega-mind, an Hasidim Jew, and some guy in safety glasses and a lumberjack shirt - and then this guy, this weird looking guy - - alone with his guitar starts to sing. Amazing. And while, as he admits, most of his songs are sad-wrist-cutting in nature, his voice is hauntingly beautiful and he plays a sweet sweet guitar. I'm pretty sure, if you click on this little link below you can hear him sing....

We had a really great time.

But, before Fitzsimmons came on, we were "treated" to a little warm up act. They, not so memorable, since I can't remember their names - were excellent food for fodder as we waiting. My observations?

Never watch Spinal Tap (or portions of Spinal Tap) prior to going to see live music at a small independent theater.
If you do happen to watch Spinal Tap prior to going to see live music at at a small independent theater, it will be impossible to take anything seriously no matter how good they are. The words, "11", "haberdashery" and a vision of a teeny little Stonehenge descending can't be erased.
Songs starting with the lyrics, "Tilt your head back until the bleeding stops" and "Singing to the houseplants" just add fuel to the fire.
Dear small group, just because you have digital music equipment that allows you to play every instrument known to man plus a few of your own inventions- you do NOT, and I repeat, do NOT need to use every one of them in every song. Pick a couple. Stick with those. There's no good reason to have bagpipes. honky-tonk piano, english horn and ancient zither in one 3 minute song with a synthesized percussion going great guns in the background.
If you are only playing about 10 songs you do not also need to bring 17 other musical instruments on to the stage with you. a) it looks cluttered and b) those three cords that you played on the banjo in song #5 could have been done without. It didn't add much, and hey! why is that the one instrument that you didn't use your digital equipment for?

Paper Fingers

2011-05-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

After months of construction, minor trials and tribulations - WE'RE IN!

"We're in" is not to be defined as "amazingly-they-have-everything-in-it's-place" - it's more of a looser term meaning that things were indeed delivered in many boxes, things have been removed from said boxes and are currently sitting in around in great piles waiting to be put some where at some time. I have not given myself a goal as to when this will be done.

All I know is that, unlike prior moves when I had everything done and pictures hung in 72 hours (or less), this particular move is going at a much slower pace. Why? I am old. 10 years of aging has a way of making you decide that going to bed is a much better option than staying up until the wee hours of the morn trying to figure out where the coffee table books look their loveliest. Now, my feet and legs are screaming out "stop you damn fool!" Not to mention that George the Elder has been riding my butt reminding me that nothing is going anywhere - - so why kill yourself... True that.

Along with tired aching joints and the almost feral desire to buy numerous pairs of stupid looking, yet comfortable, shoes (like crocs or something of the sort) - - I am now sporting some of the driest hands this side of the Central Time Zone. I forget that when unwrapping china (along with nearly everything else that had been in storage for the past 2 years - - including a small wrapped package containing exactly one small plastic die in three large sheets of packing paper) that each move has likely been directly responsible for the decimation of enough rain forest to displace a moderately sized village of Kayapo tribesman. It's mid blowing. I must finger each one of those pieces of paper. Unwrapping, flattening and repacking the paper to take up less space that then box it was delivered it. The result? Paper Fingers. The kind of dry that no amount of industrial strength bag balm can address. Only time, and the eventual molting of all hand skin, will heal.

I do have photos of the house right before we moved in - - so I will post those as soon as George the Elder can figure out how we lost our video signal on our computer from the time it was disconnected at the temp apartment and reconnected here at the CMR.

And, at some time in the future, when all the art books have been creatively arranged and the myriad of elementary school ceramics have been places on shelves, I will also take some photos of the CMR-with-stuff. Cools beans for sure!

CMR: The Home Stretch 4/24

2011-04-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

Folks were at the house both Saturday and Sunday working feverishly on getting the CMR ready in time for the Wednesday night deadline. We are confident that our movers are on schedule to arrive at our temp apartment to pack and move. I wish I could say I have the same high confidence level regarding the completion of the construction :) And yet, I am hopeful that these guys will pull at rabbit out of their hats to make sure that most things are done - - at least those necessary to move in. Only time will tell. 72 hours of time to be exact.

Mostly, they're working on the icing. My favorite part of the whole construction cake. The end of the week brought Dan, now forever known as THE man of steel, in our books. Most of the railings have been installed in the interior....

The kitchen railing and Dan THE man of steel

The railing that will serve the purpose of ensuring that
a) I do not fall in to the lower room
b) the boys have something to climb over for sport

The Wii Room railing. Will this room ever get a better moniker??? I hope so.

Another photo of the kitchen railing. Why? It's too cool for school.

The lower railing as seen from the pool room up to the rumpus room.
New wine closet WITH lights can be seen.

The birch panelling is HERE!! Not finished yet, but it's the bees knees.
And in the best game of "Fish" ever - - we got what we asked for!

The new bath is almost completely done. Glass enclosure, sink,
toilet, faucets and towel bars.

The polished concrete floors are revealed in the downstairs bed rooms.
They need a quick additional polish, but they're swell.

"Some" of our light switches have been outfitted with these nifty mid-century
push buttons.Many others will look exactly like this as soon as we get our
electrical inspection and the ugly white plastic toggle switches are removed!

Where to put the house numbers??? Here where they used to be?

Or here? Where we like them better!!!

In 72 hours there's a lot to do. Most importantly, we need some shelves in closets, the floors polished, the cabinetry in the wii room and the paneling completed. Nice to have before we move in would be a back door (while the nice thick plywood is nice, a working door might be better), interior doors for all the rooms and closets and the completion of the finish for the skylights in the atrium. There's a million little things that will remain - - but those we can "live" with for a while.

Oh yeah - - and somewhere in the next hours a nice cleaning crew would be great. I went over today to clean the inside of the fridge. Note to self: If you're going to turn off your refrigerator for a year, one box of baking soda is not sufficient. In a battle of time and residual humidity, mold will win. Every time.

CMR Update: Wine and Ambiance 4/21

2011-04-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

We're exactly one week away from the big move and the team is cranking over at the CMR. Foreman Luke is managing well with his trusty clipboard in hand. I can hardly stand to leave there since every hour brings more of the "cool stuff" that we've imagined. Sure, the construction part (digging the big hole. filling the hole with stuff like cement and wood.) was awful dang amazing - - but now the pretty stuff gets done.

Steve the Wine Guy did his magic today.

You start with a big crate

You add more crates

You put all the crates in a big hole in the wall and look at them

You put on some doors and you got: Wine Cabinet!!

Howard the Electrician is hustling about making sure all the light fixtures are getting put in:

George the Younger's Lair

Nifty bullet lights in the pool room

And the King of Steel arrived today with our custom railings. Can you say, "Totally Wicked!" - - well that's what I said. Finally, I can walk down the hallway without the niggling feeling like I was going to end up ass over tea kettle one floor down.

Hella Cool Metal!

It's going to be hard to keep up with everything that's getting done these days. But, it looks like it's going to get done - and we're going to see our stuff again in the house that we built. Astonishing.

CMR Update: T MINUS 10. April 16th...

2011-04-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

It's already Wednesday night (so we are T-7) - - but here are some shots on what's going on. Turns out that Jorge the Stain Lord is INDEED a super hero. The wood looks fabulous. The final battle of Stainpocalypse was fought and WON!!

In outdoor news...

Before: Little octagon window not painted white and the ivy was killing everything in the front yard

After: Mass of ivy under control (albeit not as green and leafy) and the little octagon window stands out

New front porch light.

New garage door light

Pretty new driveway and sidewalk

The Stainlord does GREAT things in George the Younger's Room

In person this is SCRUMPTIOUS

Still - - it looks like the boy in the bubble lives here....

Why is there a chair in my house that doesn't belong to me?

Siding installed and painted in the atrium

More atrium

And one more. Check out the weird paint job at the upper roof level. Half white half red. Need to fix that.

See this plug?? This used to be the main source of electricity running through a window. Note that it is now "unplugged"

Instead....our very first switch. We are off the plug!!

Three days later and things are hopping at the CMR. SO much is going on and we are ON FOR THE MOVE next week. Can't believe it.

Will try to get some photos tomorrow when I head over to fix a doorbell problem. Problem? The bell is no longer wired to the button, but the button IS wired to the kitchen where there is no bell. Alas.

Hot times in Nacaragua

2011-04-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

George the Younger arrived home from his 8th grade trip this week from Nicaragua. Before we delve in to both his remarks about the trip, and the photos - - I would like to point out that I am a tad befuddled about why he would complain at all.

I was once in 8th grade. In them there olden days we took an 8th grade trip. That's right, "The Junior Historians" hopped on a school bus and drove a couple o' hours to one of the most riveting spots an 8th grader could even think of dreaming of .... Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Home of the lighted map of the famous battle of Gettysburg. We also made a quick stop in Amish Country for a little current day local flavor. We went to a farm animal auction. We did not get on a great big plane. We did not need a passport. We did not go some place warm with an ocean. We piled in to a seat belt-less bus and slept on a gym floor for 2 nights or so. In the interim days we listened to someone blather on about the civil war. Whoo-hoo.

George the Younger went to Nicaragua. This trip was hastily arranged, since the 8th graders have historically headed down to Mexico for this trip. Given the recent spate of shootings, bus kid-napping with shootings, general in-the-right-place-at-the-wrong-time-shootings, the school (wisely) decided to head somewhere else. The criteria of the trip was two fold: Spanish immersion and community service. We ended up selecting an outfit called "ViviendasLeon: Not Just Travel, Transformation." A boy oh, boy did they meet those criteria.

George the Younger's main complaint? "Right when we got there, they made us work!!!" So much that week on the beach he had imagined....

They stayed with local families in Leon - 2 to 4 in a house - pairing great Spanish speakers with not-so-great Spanish speakers. George's buddy was Tomas - - they speak Spanish at home. Guess who was the not-so-great speaker? Good guess. George the Younger was ever grateful to have Tomas since the host families did not speak any English, and even if they did, they were instructed not to use it AT ALL.

They spent the better part of the trip...

Digging a foundation

Digging more foundation looking like a secret service man

Making seed "bombs"

Walking near volcanos

Communing with the locals

And yes.......

Going to the beach!!

Thanks to ViviendasLeon for posting photos on FB for all of us parents to enjoy!

Post-Script: George the Younger is a HUGE fan of burritos. Strangely, when he returned from Nicaragua at 1:00 in the morning he did NOT request a burrito even though he was "starving!!!" He requested what nearly every red-blooded American 14 year old would.... McDonalds. Who knew that you could get a drive through at 1:00 a.m.?????

It's a Date?

2011-04-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

My favorite (and oft used) moving company is set to start our packing on the 26th. Dog is scheduled to go to doggie camp for the move duration. I'm calling the utilities to get them turned off here as of May 1st.

Any one among you want to wager a bet? To move or not to move? That is the question...

Fingers crossed (and toes and arms and legs and whatever else can be crossed) that Jorge the Stain Lord will finish on Saturday. Then a final week of crazy begins. Switches installed, interior light fixtures hung, cool exterior light fixtures put in place, final installation of the sky lights and surrounding trim, casework in the wii room, wall panels, closet rods and shelves, more wiring, back doors, knobs and towel racks, faucets and sinks, door pulls and drawer pulls, grouting in the upper two bathrooms, toilets set, Steve the Wine Guy's magic, interior paint will be touched up...and stuff I am sure I don't remember. Oh and cleaning - - holy devil's snow batman - - that place needs a good dusting! And finally, I think that this all needs to be inspected and signed off.

So, who's betting now?

CMR Update: Stainmageddon: The Battle Begins 4/7

2011-04-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

All looked peaceful and quiet as I approached the CMR this morning. The new exterior paving and cement work (most required by the evil City of San Francisco) sat drying in the morning sun. But there, in the bottom left side windows, was a sign that all was not right within. Then I noticed the absence of construction trucks, construction workers.... could it be? Could Jorge the Stain Lord have arrived to save the CMR from the grasp of the evil brown stain monster?

I snuck inside to take a look. Things looked both ominous and promising....

Keep closed from whom or what???

Not a surface left uncovered.

Red paper on windows - - - creates a peculiar glow.

Entire rooms are blocked with colossal hefty bags

Everything protected but the wee octagonal window frame

What does this mean? A secret message for the Stain Lord?
Or just construction jesters??

But Jorge the Stain Lord??? Where was he hiding? Where had he chosen to begin his epic battle???

The maestro's gear is the only thing left accessible

The samples are prepared and wait for final approval

A shadowy figure in the upper hall... could this be Jorge the Stain Lord??
No. Just one of his side kicks.

Here HE IS!!!

Jorge the Stain Lord!!!

Jorge the Stain Lord many not look like much with his curious respirator mask and his unassuming costume (where is his cape??) - - but this is the super hero that will deliver us safe harbor from Stainmageddon. He will take the reigns and where there is brown - - he will make gold. He will sand and he will spray and he will compare and contrast -- and he will CONQUER!!!!!

Go Stain Lord. GO!!!!!!!

All The World's a Stage....

2011-04-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

The anatomy of "As You Like It" in 9 photos:

Hark!! Seeth Lord 2 look menacing

Pray thee, Lord 2 is menacing once more

What sayeth Lord 2? He doth utter his single line.

Lord 2 boweth, agreeing to do Duke Frederick's evil bidding

The time to bow is anon.

Let us soaketh up the audience adorations!

Lord 2 in jollification for his fellow castmates.

The cast thanketh thy Directors.

The end. Let them eat cake....

CMR Update 4-4-11: Progression and Postponement

2011-04-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

It's early April. Stuff is getting done. Some of that "stuff" is delaying us some more - - but it's one of those, getting-it-done-right-takes-longer scenarios. Stainpocalypse 2011 requires some serious taping off of entire walls and rooms - so they need to hurry up and get stuff done so that they can morph the whole house in to something akin to the containment room in "Outbreak." Jorge the super stainer will then come and do his magic to make sure all is done correctly. Apparently he is the virtuoso of all things honey oak. I can only dream.

On the good news front - - the house is really starting to look like a house...

Before we left for Disney we had a summit to discuss what to do with the exterior of the skylights. All of the creative team was in attendance:

Our Creative Team: Foreman Luke, GC Paul, and the Architects John and Geoff

They set the lights in a temporary bays and we noodled inside the plastic tent that protected all our house innards from the week of crazy rain. It was overcast, but the greenhouse effect made it about 7,000 degrees inside the courtyard tent. We tried to make our decisions quickly!

Skylights placed temporarily. You should've seen them hoisting that center
one up from the lower level. It weighs alot!

They did some finish work inside while the rain made outside work impossible:

The finish work on the beams between the skylights. For this picture, the lights weren't in yet.

A view of the skylight bays from across the rumpus room looking in to the pool room.

Then, while we were away in Disney wrestling with our rainy weather, the sky miraculously cleared here in the Bay Area and - - - yessirree!! We got exterior paint!!! It's still not completely finished, but we are pleased as punch with the color. It's similar to the old color, but brighter and shinier!

The front!

Part of the rear!

And now I am too lazy to correct the sequence of photos - - - but here are some shots of our first views of the library cabinetry. It's going to be such a GREAT room! It's still being pieced together like a massive jigsaw puzzle. I stopped by yesterday again for a meeting with GC Paul (without my camera) and it's already changed so much. The corner desks were in and the pieces were now flush with the walls.

The lower level is now almost entirely painted. They paint all the walls and then in the last moment, come back and do all the touch up work. We also used this color in our London house. It's called Stone white - - but as you can see it's really a nice warm greeny color. It is more than perfect to hang art on! The wall to the right will be covered with large birch squares (a mid-century take on "panelling" that isn't oak or knotty pine). We saw the samples and (fingers crossed) if it turns out that way - - it's gonna be so good! What you see on the walls in the rumpus room and the pool room is the grid system that they use to hang it. They just bring in the panels and "snap" them in to place.

Rumpus room color and wall grid

Pool room wall grid

And now it's time for out with the old lights and in with the new lights!! It's weird that coming in and finding lighting fixtures excited us so much - - but it did. It's fun seeing the stuff you selected get installed. We were a little nervous about some - - but in the end, we like them all. Howard the Electrician put a couple in the wrong place - - but this is an easy change...

Out with the old....

New hallway scones to take the place of the weirdly placed overhead
fixtures that were there before. Note to original builder
- - you can't hang ceiling lights on a sloped ceiling...

The fixtures are new, the globes were reused. This is in the laundry room.
The globes can't be see very well in this photo, but they are true mid-century gems.

These are the fixtures that will be in the pool room and the wii room.
Right now this one in is George the Younger's room.

These are the BIG Globes that will be in each of the boys' rooms.
An updated look on a traditional mid-century globe.

We also made progress on the stairs. The the little "train track" in the middle on the wood? The stainless steel railings will fit perfectly in there. Or so they say....

The kitchen is now mostly put back together - - and we are already trying to figure out the timing (i.e. when we will have the moola) to get the one that we really really want. For now, I can say with a high degree of happiness that AT LEAST IT ISN'T PINK any more!!

Evidence of forward movement in Stain Wars 2011? New Stain samples for the downstairs!!

Birch on the left. Oak on the Right. Fingers crossed.....and waiting for Jorge!!

And in bathroom news - - the cap pieces for the pony wall arrived from Heath and so we are 100% tiled. The big glass wall to separate the shower is on order, the medicine cabinets are here - - and all the sink and fixtures are sitting in boxes ready for installation!

Most importantly - - we spied this in the garage on Sunday....

The potty!!!

And finally - - the first buds on our wee apple tree. Spring is here and the move is now scheduled for April 27th! Ready for three weeks of GO GO GO!!!!

We are Disney

2011-04-04T20:09:00.000-07:00

Took a little spring break trip to the Magic Kingdom in Florida. The boys have been to Tokyo Disney (it was practically in our back yard) and Disney Paris (a short train ride from Germany) - but never to the ones in the good ole USofA. I do realize that the "real" Disneyland is in LA - and probably a little easier to get to - but we decided to head to the MEGA park of Disneyworld. It was the whole picnic and a bad of chips too. The kingdom has grown significantly since the last time I was there in 1990. Two parks has become parks-a-plenty. We got ourselves a 4 day park hopper pass and hoped we could squeeze it all in. Mickey, Countries, Animals and Hollywood. Daunting - but we gave it our best shot.

My big sis, "Aunt Deb-Deb" was our "tour guide" extraordinaire. I'll just say this...She's a frickin Disney-Machine. She had notes, she had maps, she brought pins to trade and she was stoked. I immediately relinquished all park-hopping power after taking care of my tasks which were to make the hotel reservations and dinner reservations and let her run with it. There was no way I could equal either her knowledge of the park system or her drive to ensure that we sucked the marrow out of the whole disney experience. After our first day at Epcot, which sported the "early hours for disney property guests" we burst through the gates at exactly 8:00 a.m. and stumbled back to the hotel just a little past midnight. I had a blister on the bottom of my right foot and the sole depth of my tennis shoes were measurably smaller. Like I said - - Machine (and the capital M is no typo).

Deb's standard walking rate makes speed-walking look like it's for sissies. She chucks. She jives. She makes managing the fast-pass system a single focused life pursuit. She can navigate through a crowd like nothing you've ever seen and for the most part we just followed her like a bunch of Vietnamese ducks heading to the next rice paddy. And, guess what? On Day One we managed to hit nearly every Epcot ride worth seeing, toured the rest of the world and still managed to get to the Magic Kingdom in time for dinner reservations and our crazy hot seats on the Tomorrowland Terrace for the fireworks show. Days 2, 3 and 4 were similar. It was easier to talk about what we didn't see than what we did. We (the ducks) might have whined a few times as we watched her take off in to the crowd, but dang - - we squeezed it all in.

The only unfortunate part of the trip was the weather on day 3 which sported a couple of "microbursts." For the uninformed, this is merely a nice compact term for whipping driving rain, large qualities of lightening and loud thunder. One would think that the prefix "micro" might be an indicator that these little beauties were short in nature - - which might be true, if each little microburst wasn't immediately followed by the next microburst. It was a little hairy at times. Thankfully, we sported some of the most fashionable Disney poncho-wear. Wet didn't slow us down at all.

Day 4 dawned sunny and warm and Florida-pretty. After a morning race through Animal Kingdom, we headed back to the pool to get some some sun and swim (and a little rest for our throbbing footsies). All was well until Cousin Charlie (20 years old and on Spring break from his sophomore year at Middlebury) made the unfortunate decision not to sit in the shade with us. That wouldn't have been so bad, 'cept he fell asleep in the sun. Let's just say that all the aloe in the world wasn't going to help the pulsating glowing red that he used to call his face and chest. If all goes well, he should be molting sometime in the next few days. I did not envy him his plane ride and 4 hour layover in JFK. Rumor has it he was nearly arrested in JFK for public nudity in the men's room while reapplying his aloe. I can't be sure, but I suspect that security just had to run away in fear after espying the bright glow of his chest.

All in all - - SUPER vay-kay!

George the Younger, Henry, Deb and Cousin Charlie in line at 7:30 a.m. SHARP on Day 1

Me and my guys after threatening their very lives if they didn't stand up and get a damn photo
taken with me. They are too "cool" for family photos right now. I reminded than that the monorail
back to the hotel was an option I was willing to select for them.

During the rain storms (yes, it was a MAGICAL rainy day), the boys spent some time
in an arcade. They chose to spend their tickets on fake moustaches. Very suave.
George the Younger may have been mistaken for Juan Valdez.

Sure, they HATE getting their picture taken with me, but give them a giant fake dinosaur....

Back at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, the boys review their pin trading spoils of the day.
This was a lot of fun for us all. Who knew? Even Cousin Charlie, who originally wasn't
going to "play the pin trading game" was into it by Day 2. We all ended up
with our own collections.

One of the BEST things we did was get reservations for the Dessert Buffet on the
Tomorrowland Terrace for the fireworks show. Great seats. Great desserts. And an
excellent place for your aching feet to take a rest!

They did this amazing thing where the use the castle as a HUGE projector screen.
They show movies on it, photos of park visitors during the day - and this totally cool
multi-color thing. Technology is so cool.

These were GREAT seats. In your face pyrotechnics...

Ever the shrinking violet, I surprisingly got selected from the audience
to participate in the "Flights of Wonder" bird show. This is my view of the audience.
Rumor has it that Aunt Deb has a photo of me on "stage." I even got a certificate of participation - -
which Deb also says she will send me. I guess they give you the certificate to show that you
aren't lying when you tell your friends you were in the show??

Our Disney ponchos in a "between microbursts" moment. Please note that Deb has her
own foul weather gear. Turns out that not only is she the best tour guide,
but she also is one of those "prepared" individuals. Dang.

Blurry photo by a fellow park visitor...

The new Toy Story ride. Nothing like 3D AND targets.

Henry learns to draw Daisy Duck in our Disney Cartoon class.

Four days at Disneyworld. Countless pairs of 3D glasses.
These were from A Bug's Life.

George the Younger find the perfect hat. He claims he will wear this to his
graduation in June.

This is the beginning of the "mistake". Imagine that same nice white chest
in a color called "Throbbing Crimson"

Privy Thee what??

2011-03-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

If I'm not mistaken the last time I read, listened to or slogged through a performance of a Shakespeare play was probably somewhere in the late 70's. If this makes me a cultural moron, I am more than willing to accept that moniker. If it counts for anything I do catch the occasional showing of some celluloid version of William's works, but to be honest movies are exempt from "true Shakespearean" experience due to the ultimate dumbing down of Shakespearean-speak for the average joe. I am grateful for this.

Last night bookmarked the end of that drought. The SF School has a tradition of having the 8th grade class put on a full-on Shakespeare Play during their 8th grade year. This year we were treated to a truncated 90 minute rendition of "As You Like It." They read the full play in language arts (Shakespeare on one side of the page / translation on the other) so that they knew what they were doing up there. Between you and me - - it might have been helpful to have had the parents do a little tutorial ourselves.

Thankfully, the playbill contained a very broad synopsis of the play. This was so very kind of them. At least I had some general concept of what was supposed to be going on. But given the VERY wide artistic license utilized by the directors of the play (i.e. there were some fairly large chunks of the play omitted), some of us were a little slow on the uptake upon the introduction of each new scene (who's talking? Where are we? What's going on?). It would have been a whole lot easier to get some bearings based on the scenery - - 'cept the director also felt that using a simple set consisting two risers was the vision she was going for. We were, however treated to some surround sound sound-effects thanks to some well placed folks in the audience who would made various bird sounds and forest noises (chirping signifying day - owls hooting signifying night) upon the change of scene. Creative for sure.

By all accounts the kids did really well. It's an amazing undertaking to put together this kind of performance. They remembered their lines. There were some moments of true artistry. They sported the costumes with aplomb - and the staff was wise enough to forgo any tight wearing for the boys.

George the younger's official role, as noted in the playbill, was "Lord 2." Basically he nailed the part of one of Duke Senior's thugs. He had one line - something about being happy to set out to find whoever it was that Duke Senior wanted dead or alive. He didn't physically sport any dark sunglasses with his tunic, tight black pants, cool black boots and what looked like a fez on his head, but they were definitely implied in his "muscle" demeanor :)

I've heard that there are going to be some photos of the performance, so hopefully we'll some good shots of George the Younger looking menacing in a fez. Until then, congrats on a performance well done - - even if there were parts of the evening when I neither understood a single word of what was being articulated, had any idea who was speaking or whether the actors were in a hall, a forest or a cave. But that was my problem. They did great!

The Boy is in the Hall

2011-03-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

Now that most families have heard from schools and most decisions have been made about who's going where - - - I can publicly announce:

CONGRATULATIONS GEORGE-THE-YOUNGER

STUART HALL CLASS OF 2015!

Stuart Hall is a small all boys school that is going to be perfect for him (The Hall). What's also perfect is that there is a nice small all girls sister school just a scant few blocks away (The Heart).

He will have about 40 boys in his class, but combined with the 40 girls it's technically a class size of ~~around 100~~ EXACTLY 80 (This post has been modified to address what my siblings see as my inability to add 40+40. I understand that this equals 80. The word "around" was meant to indicate an estimate). This is ideal for George the Younger. The majority of his classes will be all guys - but there are several coed classes too. In our opinion it's the best of both worlds.

And yes, this is a catholic school. It's known as the least catholic of all the SF catholic schools - and we're pleased that he will have exposure to various world religion studies. He DOES have a dress code (say HELLO to all manner of Gap polo shirts! Say a happy good-bye to saggy jeans and the occasional view of his boxer shorts), but does not have a real uniform. They do have something called a "dress sweater." This just conjures up Harry Potter for me and visions of Ron in his frilly "dress robes" - but that may have something to do with Henry watching a two day all-Hogwarts-all-the-time Harry Potter marathon this past weekend.

And for those that have been following along - - I will now get to wear blue and white (and some red) and we will henceforth be routing for the Knights. There may be some cheering for the "Cubs" as well. I am not sure, but I think that this may be the monikur for the JV teams? When it comes to Knights - there appears to be no real diminutive... Knight-ettes? Little Knights? Knighties? Wee Knights? Junior Knights? Whatever. They seem to be called the "cubs." I'll go with that for now.

In any event - - we are so pleased for him and for us. Now to get him through the rest of 8th grade where (to no one's great surprise), knowing that they are going to high school somewhere, the 8th graders are now all ready to immediately leave their babyfied middle school behind and just get on with the big show already.

CMR Update 3/20: Hello Light!

2011-03-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

20 days and counting until the projected finish on the CMR! I'm fervently hoping that this pans out - but I think that the jury is still in deliberations. I can't tell whether we're on schedule or off schedule. Perhaps we'll know better this week. Still, it was nice to get over to the CMR on Sunday for our weekly walk through.

The front porch beam that holds up the front porch roof has been installed. No more sticky-outy-ugly wooden support structure!

New porch beam!!

We have the house numbers all ready to be affixed to the new beam after the exterior is painted. We selected a Neutra font - very mid-century (of course). We opted for nice big 6" numbers so that they were easily read from the street. I give a "dislike" to all houses where I cannot easily see the street number. I hate slowing down to a crawl trying feverishly to pick out the house number I am searching for.

tres cool Neutra house numbers

Pool or a Pond? We have a pond. GC Paul says this is because the dirt was repacked too tightly at the time it was replaced against the side of the house. This falls under the category of "good things about lots of rain at the tail end of construction." None of that pesky waiting until long after your contractor has left to discover that your basement floods or the water runs directly from your gutters in to your brand new kitchen.

smallish pond

And in the most exciting "visual news" category since they set the CMR up on steel beams and dug out her underbelly - - -we got LIGHT! As you can see the actual windows haven't been installed - - but we were SO jazzed to see how much light even a polyurethane covered hole was bringing to our new space. And keep in mind that yesterday was cloudy and rainy. Just imagine real sun, through real clear windows....ahhhhh!

standing in the corner of the rumpus room looking toward the pool room

Let there be light in the rumpus room!

Standing in the Wii room looking toward the pool room. Love that???

Standing in the pool room looking up at the light.

The view of the sunshine from George the Younger's doorway.

I thought it looked like a theater before. This ladder scaffolding makes it look even more so.

Did I mention all the rain? Behold the plastic tent constructed in the atrium
to provide cover so they can finish the skylights

The back door is no longer operational! (And a shout out to Foreman Luke who saved the old ridged glass from the door. Thanks!!)

And the new back door is already here ready for installation. In other fabulous news, after weeks of searching at door stores, hardware stores and the internet, after much frustration/confusion over deadbolts and door knobs versus mortise locks, after realizing that unless you want a door handle the size of a crow bar on the front of your door - - we finally found the perfect hardware for our three exterior doors. Who'd have thunk that just getting a cool exterior door KNOB was such a challenge? And yet - - look up exterior entrance sets on the internet. See big handles on the exterior, but door knobs on the interior? Of course you do. See cool door KNOBS on the exterior? Nope you don't. Dear Door Hardware People: Just because I want a door knob outside doesn't mean I want chrome one that I can buy at Home Depot for $30. Increase your selection. Thanks. The Homeowner.

New soon-to-be-installed back door.

Much of the house remains a carpentry shop with BIG He-man saws. This is carpentry shop #1 in the living room....

This is carpentry shop #2 in the garage.

I'm glad that they are both there. Means that someone is working hard enough to require two! In other news, we got some painting done this week in the bathrooms and we made some forward progress on "Stainpocalypse 2011." We met with many interested and professional parties to see if we would be able to move from brown to honey on the stuff that was already stained AND to ensure that we got more honey on the new stuff. This makes the last October's selection of the polished concrete floors look simple in comparison. But, I know that we will get there.

So we move on to week T minus 3 of construction....Is that the music from Jaws I hear??? I think if I cover my ears and stomp my feet I won't be able to hear it.

All things Science

2011-03-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

With Spring on the horizon, it is the season where all middle school science teachers embark on the journey of trying to teach many 12 year-olds the fine art of hypothesis, scientific approach and the meaning of independent, dependent and control variables. They are truly blessed.

I bring up the variables as, at last count, this is my 9th science fair project. I still have to research on which variable is which. I do this because I am either unable to remember the subtleties between them or my give-a-damn about whether or not I remember them is broken. I will stick with option B. This year, George the Younger, while not having to do a "science fair project" has still been immersed in a couple of scientific testing projects in class. I have discovered that in addition to being unable to recall the differences in variables, I am also unable to provide much academic support in the identification of something called a "subtle trend." Turns out that I am much better at identifying things that are enormously obvious. Of course I am. Subtle has never been a strong point with me.

This year was Henry's first independent science fair project. In other words, time out-side of class was needed to complete the larger more sophisticated projects. It also means the creative design of the tri-fold poster board. Henry's science fair project was centered around the use of lasers and a wide variety of viscous liquids. He had a blast. This is of course because, above all, Henry LOVES science.

Please note a not-so-subtle-trend in the following photos - - the wearing of the ratty green striped sweatshirt in every single photo. I bought H this sweatshirt a few months ago. He has only taken it off when I vigorously insist that it is time for the stinky mass of green stripes to be washed. He wears it all day every day. I. Hate. The. Sweatshirt. I do, however, love that he loves science. Henry has informed me that Einstein also wore the same thing every day. My response? I doubt that is was NOT a green striped ratty sweatshirt.

The Testing.

The explaining to Dad

The "Official" poster-and-me Photo Op.

And we breath easier

2011-03-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

Big or Small?

There's been much conversation this past week among my fellow 8th grade parents regarding high school schools, high school acceptances, being crazy anxious about high school acceptances and whether or not acceptance letters at the high school level still come in the age old "big envelope = good", "small envelope = bad" construct. (am I being clear about most conversations being centered around high school?? Good.)

The skinny from those who have kids applying to colleges was that the big/small thing wasn't applicable any longer. The information age pretty much just means everyone gets a small envelope and then technology takes care of the rest. Personally, I liked the big/small thing when Shannon was applying to colleges. It made it easier to either gird your loins for the impending meltdown or prepare for the triumphant jumping and rejoicing.

I can now report, with a very high level of confidence, that acceptance letters at the HS level (at least in one case) continue to adhere to the Big Envelope / Small Envelope rite of passage...

Congratulations to George the Younger who got his first BIG ENVELOPE in the mail today!! We're all very happy and very proud.

I'd tell you where the envelope was from - but we've been encouraged to save the news until all the kids have heard and the rest of the letters have been received. Suffice to say, it's our first choice and we're over the moon. And, for those of you that know George the Younger and have a sense of how HUGE his smile can be - - well multiply it a thousand fold. He was beaming.

So, hats off to my guy. He's going to High School!!! Class of 2015. Go G!

CMR Update 3/13: Slogging through

2011-03-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

The week marched by slowly at the CMR. Little things are getting done - but truth be told, I'm not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling that things are moving forward at breakneck speed (which I think is required to get this all done by April 15th). Weather this whole week is scheduled to be crappy, so neither the skylights nor the exterior painting are likely to be accomplished. Dratsky on all fronts.

Still, there were a bunch of things done. Things you can't see in photos like the upstairs floor in the library. The reason you can't see it is because if I were to take a photo of it right now, all you would see is the cardboard that they have used to cover it up for protection. The cardboard looks pretty good though. Things you can see in photos:

The casing was reinstalled around our new giant hallway windows that over look the atrium. Sweet. Luckily, they are using the old casing that was there before, so we don't have any stain color "issues."

This is a photo of how the upper hallway windows will meet up with the lower skylights. I was momentarily aghast when I saw this thinking, "Whoa Jimmy! I thought the little skylights went below the little windows and a HUGE skylight was supposed to go under the HUGE middle window?" Turns out this is just a mock up so they can see the vertical dimensions of the skylights - - the big behemoth of a window is downstairs tucked away safely. Rumor has it that is weighs a friggin ton, so they don't fuss with it until it's "time" to drop that bad Johnny in place. Happy to know it.

Presently we are at a crossroads as to what to do with the area surrounding the skylights. Surprise to me, that no one had actually thought this through entirely. We've consulted the architects, and they're kind of mushy on what they were thinking originally. Seems that a lot of thought went in to how they would look from the inside. From the outside? Not so much thought. We'll be cracking the nut early this week. One of the thoughts was to use a smart looking perforated metal (something with little squares or something). Will keep you updated on what we decide. In any case, it has to coordinate with the stone pavers, the wood siding and the loads of glass. More critical is that you can see this atrium from every location on the top floor. So, we have to get it right. It's not like we can simply shut the blinds and forget about it. That's mostly because there won't be any blinds.

This next photo shows a new "hole" is our previously completed kitchen wall. Why the hole, you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. About 10 days ago I was over at the house. After walking around the house stepping in lots of residual plaster dust, I stepped out on the the damp atrium pavers and when I got back in the house I noticed that I had left some perfect little dusty size 7 shoe prints. Suffering from a "how to clean it" disorder, I was merrily musing that, "Gee, I'll just have to hose that little patio down!" Until it occurred to me, that even though a hose bib was included on the plans - - that little sucker had been over looked. So - see hole in kitchen wall? See greyish square outside the kitchen door with little stub sticking out of it?? New hose bib.

Now for a little game of peek-a-boo... Where's George the Elder??

THERE he is!!!

Henry's hidey-hole is complete. Door and everything. We ended up having to finish the floor in the back of the closet to make it all nice in there - - and while it was a little more "dear" than we had hoped to spend on a funky little hidey-hole - - it's kind of a nifty little thing. Perhaps we will need to use it someday to escape when those on the far left here in SF discover that occasionally we DO NOT compost everything. Compost is VERY SERIOUS business here.

See strips on wood on the left and right of the stairs? I don't know when the real stairs are going in over the stair skeleton - but we're one "step" closer. Heh heh heh.

While waiting to come up with a solution to "trim disaster 2011" - - Charles got to work on a couple more interior rooms. George the Younger's room in "Pigeon"....

Henry's room in "Orangery".....

Oh, and I've been meaning to post a photo of the window sills that have been installed in both the boys rooms. They are about 6" deep and are FABULOUS! Perfect to display many faux-gold trophies from various team sports..... Or, in Henry's case, perfect to display his most current science experiment results - - where hopefully said science experiments won't eat through beautiful new window sill. (And this is not totally out the realm of possibility - - I got a call from H a couple weeks back. He had been home alone playing with his chemistry set. I had left him with directions NOT to go off the grid and only do experiments that were included in the set's instruction book and to wear goggles at all times. This is the message I got on my phone, "Hi Mom. I need you to call me. The house is fine and I didn't blow anything up, but we've got a problem..." The chemical stain came off his fingers easier than it came off the kitchen counter. Did he go off the grid? Absolutely. What was I thinking???)

And finally, a view from standing inside the shower out to the hallway in the downstairs bath. This is the little pony wall that separates the toilet from the vanity. This week, we finally selected the color for this room (Cause DAMN! It just couldn't handle anything more!). George the Elder displayed some uncharacteristic patience in that process. He had selected "seafoam." I thought he was wrong. I tried "tranquility" and "Crysalline." No dice. He was right. The color is "seafoam." Nearly white - - but with a hint of greeny-blue. I bow to his superior color selection prowess.

Thus, we begin another rainy week of no "big" projects outside - - but I'm hopeful that we will see a resolution to "Stain Wars IV." After another heart stopping email earlier last week where Steve the Wine Guy who seemed to have fallen off the schedule (his problem, not a GC problem) - -we are back on track and should see a wine cabinet in early April. Don't know when railings are coming or all the casework for the library and the Wii room - - but until we resolve the stain issue that's on hold.

I'm sending my paperwork in to the temp apartment today indicating that our move out date is April 16th? Hmmmm - - maybe I should wait until my meeting with GC Paul today. Smart move me thinks.....

What NOT to wear: Part II

2011-03-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

Being art deco fans we've been anxiously watching the transformation of a cute little deco house that needed a bit of work that is not too terribly far from the CMR. We would drive by the house often, wondering what they were doing and when they would finally do the exterior work that would highlight the incredibly nifty window in the front of the house.

Since moving to our temp apartment, we no longer travel down this street every day- - so imagine my surprise when I meandered by the other day....

Holy what-have-you-done batman?????????

There's a whole lotta WTF going on here. Much of it is obvious. Some is not. Things to consider in addition to the staggeringly rowdy multi-colored exterior... the garage to the right is painted purple (although you can't see it) and it's not the same purple on the front of the house that you can see, the house number which is located on the purple oval shaped thingy above the cool window is bright orange NEON and the door is bright red (which doesn't show well in the photo). I could say that the solar panels are heart-breaking, but this is SF after all. Going off the grid and all that jazz.

Frankly, the whole effect is a gosh darn crying out loud tragedy. I will have to avert my eyes for all future drive bys. But, while some would say that this is reason that HMOs were implemented - - to save people from themselves and their wacky ideas of what is aesthetic - - I can't quite go there myself. You ought to be able to do what you want with your own real estate. Gaudy blue, purple, neon and all. And, we (the on-lookers) should also have the opportunity to stand with our pie holes open just wondering, "What WERE you THINKING???"

It's Decision Time

2011-03-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

In just a few short days all the hard work and organization (remember the multi-pocketed folder) of the Find-George-The-Younger-A-High-School will come to fruition. Decision letters from both public and private will be mailed on March 17th. George the Younger is calm. George the Older is anxious. While my outward appearance is mostly calm, my interior is crazy jumpy. And perhaps not for the reasons you might think.

Do I think George the Younger will get accepted to a High School? Yes, I certainly do. Do I think that there is a possibility that he will not get in to his first choice (which is technically our first choice, but it helps me justify our choice by believing it is his choice.)? Yes, I certainly do. But in the end, he will go where he is meant to go and there's nothing that can be done about that now.

What I am really focused on now is something I forgot to spend any time on entirely during the application and review process. Good strong academics? Checked that. Good strong sports program? Checked that. Class size, teacher ratio, lunch program, after school clubs and activities, block schedules, homework, college acceptances? Check, check, check, check, check, check. Team colors and mascots? Nope. Didn't think about that.

Yet, recently I was watching The Blind Side. You know, the part where Sandra Bullock says she's not going to wear Tennessee orange cause it is not, "in her color wheel?" And it dawned on me. What colors will I need to wear for the next 4 years. What am I going to be yelling from the stands? Go........???????

Our color options are: Purple and Gold, Red/White/Blue and Blue/White. I can do patriotic, I can two blue and white. I can not wear gold without looking queasy and green. My color wheel does indeed include purple. I am a Winter. This could work.

As Mascots? We got the Knights, the Breakers and the Crusaders.

I grew up with Brown and Gold (with the white thrown in for a little punch) and we were the Greensburg Salem Golden Lions. Now a lion is something you can get behind. It's the effin king of the jungle my friends. Our mascot was a guy in a furry yellow suit with a enormous paper mache lion's head. He leapt around and did cheers. He was a great mascot. There are good mascots and there are the others.

Take the case of the Breakers. What is a Breaker? How does one portray that in mascot form? Giant foam wave wiggling around out there on the basketball court? Not intimidating. A tsunami? Now that's intimidating. A breaker? Not so much.

Knights? I get that one. Royal. Polite. Chivalrous. And pretty good with a sword and a horse. I can envision the mascot, but I wouldn't want to be him. Chain maille? Just plain heavy. Knight hat? Hard to see through the grate. And I would bet my bottom dollar that dancing around in a full set of armor requires some real stamina. Oh, and an oil can.

Crusader? I'm on the fence about this one - - you know crusaders are very Knight-esque. 'Cept when you get right down to it, there's also a component of agitator or zealot or religious malcontent. The mascot probably would be GREAT at whipping the crowd into a frenzy - but hopefully has the control to stop the insanity before the entire bleachers empties on their way to rid the world of the scourge that is the "other team" using rolled up sports programs as lethal weapons. Might is right and all that.

I'll keep you informed as we hear the big news. It's been a bit of a drag having to had rush,rush,rush, from September through December and then silence, silence, silence as I waited through January and February with nothing on my hands but time to think about my essay and whether I said all the right things or not enough of the right things or I spelled something incorrectly and the admissions team just threw their hands up in horror going, "Well, dang daddy, if the momma can't write, well the youngins' can't write either. This young pup is outta here." (This is assuming that all admission teams are Southern).

In that case, the public school colors are red and gold. How do I feel about Mustangs???

CMR Update March 5: A Video for Molly

2011-03-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

My sister Molly suggested taking the flip camera on a stroll through the CMR. Having never used a flip camera before you can imagine that this was potentially a very bad idea. The flip camera was actually fairly easy to operate. The operator, on the other hand, need to get the gist of not making her viewers feel sea sick. WARNING: If you are prone to motion sickness - please view at your own risk :)

Oh... I start looking in through the front door, make the "loop" of the upper floor, arriving full circle at the front door again. I stroll back through the living room and dining room and descend in to the lower level. At the bottom of the steps I swing (and this, you will see in the operative word) to the right to catch the laundry room and the garage entrance. Then I swing back and start the 1/2 loop of the lower level.

(Note: See trim and baseboards in the lower level that were recently installed this weekend. See how brown they are - - as in "how now brown cow?" This is SO not the right color. They are supposed to be either a) the color of the upstairs wood work or b) a rich honey color that we chose a sample of. They are neither a) nor b). They are brown. We're not brown kind of folk. Somethings gotta give here. Me thinks my GC is going to be unhappy that we don't like brown.)

So, without further ado - - A Stroll for Molly...

Fortnight

2011-03-02T14:43:00.000-08:00

Prologue:

In many languages, there is no single word for a two-week period (e.g. fortnight) and the equivalents of "two weeks" or "fourteen days" have to be used. In Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese, there are the terms quincena (or quince días), quindicina, quinzaine, and quinzena, all meaning "fifteen days". Similarly, in Greek, the term δεκαπενθήμερο (dekapenthímero), meaning "fourteen days", is also used. However in Hebrew, the single-word (shevuiem) שבועים means exactly "two weeks". The Hindu calendar uses the Sanskrit word "paksha" to mean one half of a lunar month, which is between 14 and 15 solar days. In Welsh, the term pythefnos, meaning "fifteen nights", is used instead. This is in keeping with the Welsh term for a week, which is wythnos ("eight nights").

Actual post (and why you need to know the above):

Remember that excited dizzying post I wrote on Monday? The one where I was so gosh dern happy to have written my letter to temporary-housing-manager-people about how I only have 30 (THIRTY) more days living in this transient, colorless (white walls / beige carpet) world?  Well, fuggedaboutit. Plans. have. changed.

Precisely 20 minutes after I posted that blog I headed to the rental office - happy, happy, happy, skippy, skippy, skippy. I was overjoyed imagining only 30 more days of laundromats, 30 more days of dealing with neighbors who are simply PIGS when it comes to dumpster usage (it's a big damn hole -- get your garbage inside it), only 30 more days of not seeing my stuff, only 30 more days of having to kindly avoid my weirdly skeevy flirtatious mailman, only 30 more days of having my car sitting outside in the rain, pollen, sun and dirt.

Riding on the thoughts of "all things never to be missed" I buoyantly delivered my letter, then hopped in the car and hied over to the CMR to see the "new new stain colors." I was still pretty happy happy skippy skippy - - cause dang - - they got them there stain colors just about perfect this time! About 40 minutes have passed at this point.

Then (cue evil bom-bom-bom music) in walks GC Paul who delivers the news, "Well, the team met this morning and discussed all that still needed to be done.   Well, it looks like we are delayed at least until the middle of April." Just then, I began to hear this terrible squealing-buzzing-high-pitched-humming-sound in my head. His mouth, I think, was still moving. I wasn't listening any more.

Of COURSE they're going to do everything they can make sure it gets done by mid-April. Because, Of COURSE that's what they said in December when we were delayed the 2 months that time.   I have been ASSURED that they will use their full efforts. What's that old adage "Fool me once?" - - I'm definitely in the "shame on me" section of that little truism nugget.

Now I'm unhappy unhappy unhappy, unskippy, unskippy, unskippy. But, whatcha gonna do? Am I going to bitch about it for a couple of days? Of course I am. Will this make them work any faster? Of course it won't. That's the real beauty of it. Even if I moan and complain. Even if I whine and stamp my feet and say , "Hey wait a cotton-picking minute -- you TOLD me..." - - Truth is, I'm not the one holding the power tool. I am power-tool-less.

But, it's time to stop dwelling, put on my big girl pants and go stare at my white walls and my beige carpeting. I'll choke down my paksha-pythefinos-quindecina-shevuiem.

CMR Update Feb 26: 30 days and counting....

2011-02-28T12:03:00.000-08:00

Things are simultaneously moving quickly and slowly towards the finish line at the CMR. Today I will put in our "notice to vacate" here at the temporary digs. Huzzah! The final finishes calendar is up at the CMR - and it looks like we are really going to get this project wrapped up. Still proceeding with cautious optimism.

This is the calendar. Everything seems to be in order

After another "small" problem with the water heater - some kind of interior leaking that was fixed by the manufacturer - we now have heat! See the glowing green light? Green = good!

Glowing Green!

More proof? A working thermostat that says it's going great guns! But the most important proof? The house was actually warm when you entered it. Toasty warm. Take your shoes off and feel the heat on the floors warm. If there wasn't so much plaster dust and nails and other hazards on the floor, I would have just kept them off for the whole visit. Radiant floor heating? It's the bees knees!

A little high for George The Elder aka "The Electric Company"

The floor was installed in the library. It still needs to be sanded and stained (which could be problematic, but we'll get to that in a minute) - but we're one step closer in this room. Next up? The cabinetry. Some place to put the loads and loads of boxes of books that have been sitting in the dark for the past 19 months.

Trim around the windows and doors in being crafted and installed. This is our strange little octagonal window in the library. Why did they put this window in in the first place? Who knows. But we like it and it's staying. It will be surrounded by more shelves in the next couple of weeks.

We are having a bit of an ironic situation over at the CMR that has to do with staining the wood. The existing wood work in the upper level has been used as the prototype for the stain color for the new wood work that is being installed. Interestingly, it took several iterations on different types of wood, using varied stains to derive the final samples for the new stuff. When we finally settled on the stain color we were jazzed. But then during the negotiations with Charles the Painter he offered to "spruce up" the existing wood work by a simple quick sanding and a couple of clear coats of varnish. The price was reasonable and the old wood work was a little age worn. We went for it.

Last week, Charles started the sanding. There are book shelves in the family room, built ins in the dining room and a whole floor of baseboards and window sills. The ironic part? Now that Charles has started the sanding it is apparent that the original stain color can't be easily matched. Go figure.

Here is an OK photographic representation of the wood work before the sanding. It's this kind-of-a-sort-of-a-honey-oak finish. The reason that we had so much trouble matching it so that we could stain the new wood work was that it had a sort of "greenish" color in there too. Hard to see, but trust me, it was there.

Dining room case work right before we bought the house

This is a photo of the top of that same casework now that Charles has sanded it down. Hmmm? What was the stuff that was on it? Some kind of mid-century waxy furniture polish/treatment. Now it's all gone.

In his attempt to "match" the newly sanded stuff, Charles the Painter tries his hand at matching. First try? On the Right. We went from honey oak to yellow oak. No go. So, Charles tries again. I arrive at the house to see attempt #2 on the left: Mahogany. Not only a fail - but an epic fail. See small board lying up against the newly sanded cabinets? That is the goal. The Holy Grail. My faith in Charles the painter - - who I was kind hoping had a little experience in the matching of colors - is teetering. I get the yellow. I don't get how mahogany is even close to the oak sample. We got ourselves some more work to do. GC Paul is working on it with Jason the wood guy. Excellent choice. He's the one who made the samples in the first place. I am hopeful he can recreate his masterpiece.

This is a photo of the existing guest room. You haven't seen many photos of this room since nothing much was being done in here. It has also been used as the "safe room" where all manner of boxes containing soon to be installed light fixtures, door hardware and other "need to keep dry and out of the way" construction things like new doors and windows are housed. The reason I am showing this photo is because when we bought the house only one of these four windows could be opened. Some were nailed shut in what we imagine was an attempt to "keep grandma safe." Some were just simply painted shut. Now, although you can't see it - - similar to the heat coming up off the floors - these windows all open. Hip Hip Hurrah! Luke the Foreman is a God.

Simply a view from the top of the upper hallway down in to the kitchen. They've put the old hall cabinet in to the corner of the kitchen so that we'll have a little more cabinet space until the day in the future when we rip the whole thing out and install the kitchen of our dreams. The steel railings that will keep us from failing down in to the stair well will be one of the last things to go in.

The bathroom tile is nearly finished. I sorely wish that the photos didn't make it look so "santa-esque" When in fact there's a mix of green, blue and red. The light blue looks white - - but it's not. I keep saying that. Still, we like it in person. You're just going to have to come and visit to get the real "experience."

Shower area and pony wall are nearly all done. Still missing the right tile shape for the very edge of the pony wall

Shower floor (and the rest of the floor) is done. I didn't take a photo of the rest of the floor since it was all nicely covered up

Niche #1

The calendar that I started this update with says the skylights are supposed to be installed this week. Now THAT will be one of the last really big changes to the whole space downstairs. We wait with baited breath to see the light that comes in and how windows will look where plywood has reigned for the last many months. I took a couple of weird angle shots the other day of the walls leading up to the skylights. One of the coolest things has been "seeing" things in person when you could only conceptualize them from drawings. I can't tell you how I thought the wall was going to be - - but it's amazing that it's so tall and has a nifty angle where it will meet the skylights.

View from standing in the pool room looking toward the front of the house and H's room on the upper right

And onward we move. 30-ish days and counting. Time to start planning the house-warming party!!

Wake me up before you go go

2011-02-27T23:03:00.000-08:00

I LOVE the Academy Awards. It's like my own little superbowl. I get the snacks, I set the DVR, I wait excitedly for the game to begin. This year - - what. a. waste. of. good. hot wings. and. blue cheese.

Sadly, George the Elder was out of town, so my viewing buddies were George the Younger and Henry. Let's just say it wasn't the snark-fest of last year with my sisters. But even if we had been together, I think that all we would have kept commenting on was the complete dearth of material actually needed to make a snark-fest snarky. Going it alone was exruciating.

I began the afternoon with high hopes. I even had a couple of hostess ho-hos on hand to make watching the red carpet just a little more tasty and decadent. I started up the VCR with Ryan Seacrest and Guiliana Rancic and the red carpet on E. The way I figured it was that there could be nothing better than to watch lots of fancy pants actresses show off the talents of their stylists and designers than to do so with a couple of hostess cakes to remind me that thems is thems and mes is mes. My observations:

Guiliana Rancic needs a snack. Badly. It doesn't even look like she's eating cotton balls for nutrition. Her arms were like chopsticks and made Kelly Osborn's head look even larger than it should.
Kelly Osborn is very very very good at repeating the last thing she has heard. If an original thought had entered her head she wouldn't know what to do with it.
Cate Blanchet's dress looked like she was auditioning for "Star Wars XVIII: The Red Carpet." I also had some concern initially that she had just put the damn thing on backwards.
Florence Welsh and Scarlett Johansson are both guilty of raiding my grandmothers linen cabinet. Florence needs to return those frilly bathroom curtains and doilies and Scarlett - what made you think that my granny's thanksgiving table cloth would make a swell dress?
Henry thought that Jennifer Hudson looked like a traffic cone. Me? I thought she looked great, although I wondered what kind of clamp-like device was holding her left breast hostage. It looked like it was pokin' her something fierce.
Hailee Steinfeld was a little puff of perfection. Her simply dreamy pretty pink princess frock was divine. Loved the headband too.
Damn Nicole - - what were you thinking? The hip shield looked like a peplum that got turned around during the limo ride. At least it looked like your forehead was moving again. Thank heavens botox wears off eventually.
Helena B.C. You just simply scare the crap out of me. I don't care what you're wearing. But I do like your shades.
Melissa Leo - - did you break in to Elvis' house and "borrow" something from the mid-70's? Pricilla and Lisa Marie want their heirloom back, please.
Some real lovelies: Sandra in red, Halle in netting and glitz, Hilary Swank who rarely misses, and Helen Mirren who is the one star who I can actually imagine myself wearing the same things she does.

The opening montages were the harbingers of bad, boring things to come (with the exception of Alec Baldwin and Morgan Freeman cameos). I should have just given it up, but you knew I wouldn't didn't you...

Ann and James? She was like a star struck Hammy the squirrel from Over the Hedge. Pretty much hopped up and hyperactive. James? Did he rehearse his bland, boring, stilted delivery and occasional eye roll? Cause he sure was good at it He was nominated for best actor for a guy who cut his own arm off. About 7 minutes in to the show I wanted to cut my own arm off and beat him with it.
Kirk Douglas... mostly good and a little bad. Good that he's still alive. Bad that he seems to have gotten in to a relationship with the same make-up artist that Dick Clarke uses. Good that he was probably wittier than the two hosts combined even if we could have used closed captioning to understand what he was saying. Bad that they let his shtick go on about 3 minutes longer than it should have.
Dear Reese - - I couldn't decide if you looked more like the flight attendant Barbie from Toy Story 2 or some doll I used to have long ago whose hair would grow when you pushed a button in her tummy. You're darling though. Just get a new hair stylist and let Julie Roberts have her dress back.
I had NO idea that Christian Bale was Welsh/English. I actually had to look it up on IMDb. I seriously thought he was punking us what with that bushy beard and calling himself a git and all. He's just weird enough to make it all up.
There is a VAST VAST wasteland between stars (with stylists and designers and tailors and make-up people) and the poor working schmucks like writers and editors and documentarians. It would only be leveling the playing field a bit if the academy sent out personal copies of "InStyle: Oscar Secrets" to each and every one of the nominees. This year's edition extolled the virtues of selecting the correct undergarments. Spanx would have made a world of difference for so so many.
Single emotional moment? The songs from Toy Story 3 and Tangled back to back. I admit to welling up a bit. Toy Story 3 was brutal.
They should have just let Melissa Leo spew forth her F-Bomb. Now that would have at least made ONE acceptance speech interesting.
First LOL (and only) : Taylor Lautner and "Doesn't he own a shirt" musical number (see what we were up against if THIS was the only funny thing??? It was horrid.)
Say what you want about Oprah, but years of reading teleprompters earned her "presenter of the night." She seemed actually interested in presenting the best documentary award.
Is Chris Martin getting a little pissed that Gwyneth has been asked to perform musically at both the grammies and now the Academy Awards? Cold who??? Oh and BTW - luckily you had a really nice red carpet dress Gwynny - cause you were off key. Sad, but true. Does that make Chris more sulky? I bet it does.
And last - - H's final comment about Ann Hathway? "How many dresses does that woman have with her?"

And in the end, are we glad that ABC signed on for another 12 years or so to telecast the Oscars? Not so much. Bring back Hugh or Steve or Alec. Bring back Neil Patrick Harris. Bring back Billy. I think that they gave Billy a standing ovation tonight just hoping and praying that he would stay and stage an emcee coup. Pity for all of us he didn't. Like I said. What a waste of wings and hohos. Dang.

My Doppleganger Elizabeth

2011-02-23T11:45:00.000-08:00

George the Elder and I finally got ourselves out on a date over the weekend. We went to see "The King's Speech." If you haven't been yet - - hie thee to a theater before the Oscars on Sunday night. It's a damn fine film. Me? I was prepared for the slog of an historical documentary-esque film. Instead, I can't exactly recall how many times I laughed out loud. Dialog was witty and clever. Colin Firth deserves every bit of that nomination!

Coincidentally, I received an email from a dear friend (VB you know who you are) - - who sent along some photos of the young Queen Elizabeth to me. She reports that she is now convinced the I am related to the Queen. What nonsense? Or is it? Could we be living in a parallel universe? Was I switched a birth from royal heritage? Whisked away to a commoner's life in Greensburg PA to hide my true and deserved lineage?

The Real Queen E

Me on the right - adjusting to life as a commoner?

Ah, wouldn't that be grand? Just thinking about the sheer number of hats and tiny purses I would have in my closet is overwhelming. Corgies galore! Lots of really good tea. And the plaid! Oh the plaid!!!

But wait - - there is one itsy bitsy little chunk of a downside....

Egad! The hair's about the right color already. Will keep this in the "memory vault" for a couple more decades. We'll check back on this later. As in MUCH MUCH later. I'm not looking forward to it. No I most certainly am not.

CMR: President's Day 2/21 Color My World

2011-02-22T15:43:00.000-08:00

First things first....our dented mac daddy of a water / radiant floor heater was replaced with a pretty sparkling new one. Way to go Scotty-the Radiant Guy!!

This little doo-hicky will be all that we need to manage...

This highly complex and amazing feat of radiant floor heating technical monstrosity:

Since we now have electricity running back in to the house, we "technically" have overhead lighting. We do not, however, have any light switches so only tall-ish people can "turn" the lights on. This is also know in the trade as "screwing in a light bulb."

But we need some extra light to see our very diagonally hip mid-century dream of a marmoleum floor!! It's a little wonky on the eye in this photo, but it's simply divine in person.

The tile guys are hard at work finishing up our new downstairs bath. The photo makes it look kind of "christmassy", but it doesn't look that way in person. In fact, it looks exactly like we dreamed it would! Hurrah for bathroom tile....

While continuing to strive for achieving the perfect exterior color for the CMR, George the Elder painted some big sheets of "Sequoia" on Sunday morning over at the temporary digs.

We hauled them over to the construction site and taped them up on a bunch of different exterior locations to see if we liked the color. Guess what? We DID!! So, we're sticking with a reddish brown called "Redwood" or "Sequoia." Oh so very northern California isn't it? The trim will be a white to "pop" the windows. Soooooo happy to have decision out of the way. You likee?

Typically we head over to the CMR on Sunday mornings. We go then because no one else is there. It is quiet - no saws, no sanders, no one working. But, this Sunday we got a little surprise! Meet Charles The Painter. As it turns out Charles the Painter also likes the house when there are no other workers there. But the best part of the surprise was that Charles the Painter and his dogged painting helpers were PAINTING THE INTERIOR!!! We got COLOR!!

This is the entry hall. The color is "straw." My camera makes the colors look a little brighter than they are in person. But, DAMN, we love this color with our oak wood work. After living so so so many weeks and months with white walls, we couldn't be happier to see a little color on the walls!

This is the library on Sunday around noon. The color in person is a really nice blue/gray. Oddly, much more gray that this photo shows.

When we returned on Monday we got to see the "straw" meet the "pigeon. We're practically giddy.

Monday afternoon they are finishing up the hallway....

The living room first coat is finished!!

And so is the dining room!!!

The master bedroom?? A lovely shade of "storm" - can't wait to see it with the hardwood floors once they are unmasked.

I was over there this morning and they were starting the sanding of all the old wood around the upstairs. They'll give it a nice sanding and then they'll cover it with a couple of coats of clear finish. It's gonna be all pretty and shiny!! They were also installing the wood floor in the library (or half of the library that used to be the "bindery" before we made it into the Library). The bath tile is nearing the ceiling, they're grouting the front steps and I hear more rumors about railings being ready.

Best news of all? We are ON TIME for completion at the end of March. In just FIVE SHORT DAYS we will put in our notice to vacate our unit here at the Park Merced Apartments. I am OVER THE FRICKIN MOON!!

CMR Update Feb 16: We got some finishes!

2011-02-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

This is Jason the Cabinet man. What's great about Jason is that we're seeing him now because after months of big equipment, cement trucks, unfinished carpentry to put up walls and lots and lots of dry wall - - we're ready for the finishes. Hello Jason the Cabinet Man!!

Jason built these! The left will hold George's stereo rack and stereo equipment, the middle will be our delicious wine closet soon-to-be-built by Steve the Wine Guy and the right are just going to be some open shelves where we will put some of our children's handcrafted and fired ceramics and macaroni picture frames- - or not.

Jason built this!! This is the boys' bathroom vanity. It will have two nice big drawers so I can stuff all their crap in to them in an outta-sight-outta-mind move - - and down below a kinda cubby scenario where I will put their extra towels. Soon to be seen in the bathroom??? The TILE. They were laying it out today. See the muddy walls? All ready for wonderfully colorful Heath tiles...

This nice guy was hanging the first of our new interior doors. We LOVE LOVE LOVE them. They all have ribbed glass inserts. Some day in the distant future, this will be the door to a bathroom. Today it is a door to a closet. But the bathrooms have 1/2 glass and the other rooms get...

Full Glass!!! Whoopppeeee!! This is the door to my laundry room. Poetic that it will be the first room with a door AND the first room to be painted TOMORROW!!!! Bring on the Iced Marble - we're getting some color!

And here's two before and almost-after shots. The Master bath with all it's wallpaper and frilly curtains:

The master bath with no door, no wall paper and no frilly curtains. Soon the ceiling will be "steam" and the walls will be a lovely shade of "storm" - how cool is this??

The guest room bath in its previous riotous color scheme. Could you get any more curtains on that window??

And mid-correction... Frankly, I hardly noticed how super-super yellow the ceiling and window trim really was against all the seizure-provoking wall paper. Admittedly, this room will not have the WAKE-UP effect of its former glory - - but nor will we have to call the paramedics when our guests are blinded. And the best news about this room is that they were able to find a nearly spot-on match for the pink tile for the areas under the sink and on the shower side! Good deal.

Last - - check out these big BEE-YOU-TI-FUL windows. After mis-information about impending delivery 3 weeks ago, after missing their ride two weeks ago - - this week - - well we got some serious sunshine streaming in. And the two side windows open! And they don't leak water! And they keep the hot and cold air out. Perfectly wonderful windows....

They're cleaner than this! We couldn't figure out how to open the atrium doors, so this was taken through a window!

View from library entry way down hall towards the Kitchen stairs

Look Ma!! We OPEN!!!

Before the week is out, we will have lots of tile, more doors, and rumor has it the railings are nearly completed. The skylight needs to be ordered and installed and we STILL haven't selected an exterior paint color. BUT - holy house batman - - - it's starting to look like we've got ourselves a home here.

Grammies 2011 - What a Show?

2011-02-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

The Grammies - - sort of like the Oscars - - but with more interesting costumes and better performances (or not...)

First comment from George the Younger, "Is EVERYONE wearing latex pants? That's hecka weird!"
Dear Usher, You ain't no Michael Jackson. No matter what you might think.
Lady Gaga pointy mutant shoulders? HUGE improvement over the meat dress, I think. Better yet, her whole dance crew were like mental patients in shiny yellow hospital robes. She should, however, ensure that Madonna gets a nice fat hunk of whatever she makes from that song which is nothing more than a cover of "express yourself."
Lady Gaga AGAIN - wonderful black rubber body armour. I wanna borrow it. If I were to sit in that in my car, those big bulbous butt cheeks could enable me to finally see over the steering wheel of my car for the first time in my life. The pointy breasts -- just a little jelly on that bread.
First comment from Henry, "I think Katy Perry went a little over-board with her bedazzler!"
Current musicians who CAN sing?: Bruno and Eminem
Current musicians who wouldn't have made it to Hollywood week based on their Grammy performances?: Rhianna (who couldn't carry a tune if they handed it to her on a shovel - but obviously has a second career as a fabulously talented pole dancer) and Miranda Lambert (what WAS that??)
Nicki Minaj - what were you thinking? Leopard Q-tip? Really?

Norah, John and Keith - - sweet little nugget of a song: Jolene (although John looked way too much like John Mayer-channeling-Johnny Depp, didn't he??)
Is J-Lo married to Gullam? And what was with the playful, yet non-sensical, marital banter between the two? Please don't let either of the twins look like Dad...
Did you catch Beiber's face when he lost to Esparanza? I don't know who looked more shocked - Justin that he lost or Esparanza that she won!
Mick, Bob and Babs -- great to see you - - but how does it feel to be the "old folks"? George the Younger wondered aloud whether Mick's Dad "thought he was an akward child?" and said "Hey! Is that the lady that plays Ben Stiller's mom??? I didn't know she sang!!!." As for Bob - - "what's he supposed to be doing? Singing?? It doesn't sound like singing. And who is Maggie and what's with her pie or farm or whatever?"
Cee Lo Green?? Highlight of the night. He made Elton John look reserved. It was Monty Python meets the muppets - - and all with a great song - - that should have won....

What NOT to wear

2011-02-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

In an effort to come to closure on what color to paint the exterior of the CMR, George the Elder and I took a little field trip over to Westlake - - a veritable cornucopia of mid-century houses - - just a hop, skip and a jump from our temp apartment. There are street after street after street of mid-century bungalows. While we don't have a "bungalow", we figured that we might catch a glimpse of the ideal mid-century color combo. Hmmmm - not so much.

When we got home and downloaded the photos, we realized that we had taken significantly more DON'T photos than DO photos. Some of them were "real keepers." A great many of these homes are owned by Asians, so some of the shades could possiblyy be attributed to advice from Feng Shui - - on the other hand - - there were certainly a few that were simply a result of poor color choice...

Pink AND blue.

And who says Lavender isn't calming?

Oh how I wish this one had turned out better. This isn't even pink. It's SUPER PINK!!

The sun was starting to set, so several of the photos came out dark - - I so wish I had gotten a good shot of the one that had at least 8 different colors on it. It was as if they went to paint store and simple bought gallons of whatever was on sale and then applied them all randomly. It was a work of art.

And, you guessed it - - in the end we are no closer to determining what color to paint our own beloved CMR. You can be sure it won't be pink.

CMR Update: Color Quandry

2011-02-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

There was little more action at the CMR since I updated with the atrium photos late last week. Yes, there's more stone laid, but when we when visited on Saturday it was covered up with some heavy cardboard and I couldn't get a good photo.

They were also still working on sanding all the walls and ceilings, so the I'm-walking-around-inhaling-millions-of-dry-wall-particles feeling was prevalent. I'm hoping that years from now dry-wall particles will not be the asbestos of the 21st century!

This week, George the Elder and I are at a critical junction. We have selected interior paint colors together without the need for police intervention or bodily harm. My ego was a little bruised when my choice of "ladybug" was vetoed in favor of his choice of "caliente" - but I will get over it. Eventually. But now - we must choose exterior colors. This could be the hue that skews our double-rainbow.

We originally wanted to keep the house it's "original color." This is kind of a laughable objective, since the house hasn't been painted / stained in about 15 years. The "original" color is going to take a little research, as in, find the least weathered plane on the house and use that 1" sample. I think we're still leaning towards the reddish color - - but I thought I would send it out to y'all and see what you think.

If this was your little mid-century gem - - what color would you paint it? Would you still use two colors (red with the white trim on the windows) or would you do something with a third color? WWYD?

Oooh - and using the new photo loader I can make the photos EXTRA-large. Maybe that will help with inspiration???

Smuts it all about??

2011-02-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, not so many years past, young teen boys were known to rifle through their father's stash of girlie mags to do a little "research" on all things birds-and-bees. Sure, their Dad's sat them down for "the talk" - but realistically when it came to finding the needed inspiration in trying out their new found play things, they headed to the Playboy centerfold to check out the finer attributes of Miss May. The information contained in Heather's "bio" that stated her favorite pastime was taking moonlit walks on the beach or enjoying a sloe gin fizz was a far distant second to checking out her bodacious breasts.

Fast forward a couple of decades and I speculate that the preponderance of Dads no longer have the stash of well-thumbed Playboys. Those tomes full of "interesting articles" cannot be found squirreled away in the bottom nightstand drawer or in a brown cardboard box in the garage. Nope. The new king of porn is the internet. And therein lies a BIG problem.

Dad's magazines were pure innocence compared to what is available with just a few quick clicks and some interesting search words. Grievously, my boys will not be introduced to "playtime" by using their imagination to conjure up what the aforementioned Miss May may or may not be willing to do in their world of let's-believe. No-sir-ee. They simply type in "hand job" and wait breathlessly for the search engine to work its magic. Instead of being presented with Betty Page in some deliriously fetching fishnets designed to invoke some creative motivation, they get what amounts to Marilyn Chamber's one v many escapades in Behind the Green Door. Talk about getting more than they can handle. And I said that both figuratively and literally.

From the earliest french girlie postcards - to print contributions from Flint and Hefner - - men have historically sought out visual inspiration.. Live action porn films were something you didn't get a chance to see until you went away to college and someone showed a grainy 8mm in the frat house for fun. One might argue that even at 17-18 that that's a little much, but all would agree that at 13-14 it's over the top.

It's a strange phenomenon to be a parent who is yearning for a little "A Ticket" soft-porn that would be ideal for this young teen age-group - you know - softly air-brushed photos of woman laying repose on velvet throws possessing that come-hither look. What I don't need is my boys too easy access to that "E Ticket" hardcore stuff that makes me tilt my head to the side and say "Wahuhhhh? You can do THAT with a jacuzzi full of marshmallow fluff, a muscular dwarf and a silk scarf ???" (Note: not that I have ever seen any of this stuff.... you know - - just for the record and all.)

So, I'm thinking of encouraging George the Elder to get a subscription to Playboy for about a year or so. You know - - just so there's a full 12 months medley so as not to incur boredom and the need to go elsewhere in the short run. We're going to have to make sure they know they're here, but not in such an obvious way that it doesn't take the fun out of sneaking them out of the hidey-place and replacing them before Dad knows they've been pilfered. It's likely that part of the fun is the knowledge that you pulled one over on the old man. Cause that's the problem with internet porn (at least from my teens' perspective) - - everything leaves an electronic trail. Why do you think we're having this conversation in the first place?

Hello, Playboy???

CMR Mid-Week: On the Porch and in the Water

2011-02-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

The new- new front steps got a new look on Wednesday when they laid down the lava rock on top of them. Were we excited? You betcha!

View from bottom of stairs

View from inside the front door out to the new landing!

They ran a plumb line from the front stoop in through the front door and across the atrium so that all the planets are aligned. Lucky the professionals are in charge. Me thinks I wouldn't have thought that far ahead!

Starting to lay the big tiles on the pedestal system

An up close and personal view of the sophisticated pedestal system.

The stone sits up on these ingenious little plastic whatchamajiggies that create a space between the bottom waterproofing and decking and drains. Once they're all installed you won't see an ugly drain at all. Just nice level, very square pieces of stone/rock.

Day 2 of the atrium stone installation. They're making progress!

This little eye-popping gem is the liner to my shower. I was perplexed for two reasons when I spied it. First - why was it SO RED? Did some-one some-where misread some-thing?? And second, why was my fire-engine red shower floor filled with water? The answers? It's red because that's the liner and it will be covered in pretty tile, so they use the heaviest and best liner they can. It's also red so that if you have to do tile repair later it will be OBVIOUS to the folks pulling up your tile that they're reached the promised land. It's filled up with water to prove to the inspectors (yes indeedee there ARE city inspectors for this too!!) that the thing can hold a certain volume of water for a particular span of time. I noticed this water filed basin on Thursday. I took this photo today. Clearly it can hold water for more than 24 hours. This is good news. That inspector must be a one smart cookie to have this job! Does it have water? Check!

And in the bad news department - when they opened our super-duper water heater it had a GRAND BIG GOUGE in the side of it. This one goes back and a pretty new one will come in. Scotty (the grand pubah of all things radiant heat) was crushed that this wasn't perfect. I thought the poor man was going to burst in to tears when he showed me the dent. I patted him on the shoulder and told him no worries. It's just a water heater. Children weren't bleeding from the head. (At least none are bleeding from the head right at this moment. If I discover that the delivery of a new water heater will delay our completion date, well - mothers protect those precious orbs, cause there could be real trouble.)

My DING!

And, as a post script to this update: Dear Blogger, The new picture uploading thing just may not work as well as you thought. Yes, I do not have to load my photos up in reverse order which is a "good thing." The "bad thing" is that now they do not load up in any logical order forwards to backwards. Could be "user error" - but, then again. Maybe not. On another note. Captions for photos?? BRILLIANT! Just BRILLIANT!

Just somethin' funny

2011-02-04T14:22:00.000-08:00

I've been reading this guy's blog for a while and more often than not, he just cracks me up. So, I am linking you to his newest blog entry Called 10 Most Obvious Findings. Thank you Captain Obvious!!

http://www.johncaveosborne.com/2011/02/04/10-obvious-findings/

Congrats to the H-Man!!

2011-02-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

While we've been mostly focused on the process of getting George the Younger accepted in to High School - - we spent a bit of time trying to find the right summer program for Henry. After his last summer at Winaukee, we finally threw in the towel and realized that forcing him to go to a sports camp for 5 weeks - - when he is only there half-heartedly - - was wrong. He needed something else. Something academic. Something where other like-nerdy-kids spend great amounts of time indoors performing diabolical experiments with chemicals and beakers and safety glasses. You know, something where Henry could stop dissecting plasterboard in my kitchen and leave the mess for someone else (meaning me).

Well, I did I little research to see what was out there for our lad. Lo and behold, turns out that we have a pretty well known university right down the street from us called Stanford. Better yet, they have several very academically focused summer programs for maths and sciences concocted specifically for brainy middle schoolers. Yup! Just the ticket for our budding scientist.

Downside is that you had to apply to get in - - you know - - transcripts, standardized test scores, recommendations from teachers - you'd think he was going to Stanford or something :) How I longed for the writing of the check to Camp Winaukee - - they let anyone in. It's easier. But - - -

A big shout-out of congrats to the H-Man who was accepted to attend the EPGY (educated program for gifted youth) at Standford this summer for two weeks fully immersed in all things Physics. There was no gigantic celebration when he heard the news. Weirdly, just a sly little smile disguising his jubilation. Way to go Henry!

And way to go me! Nearly 4 weeks of summer plans down for Henry. 10 days in Salzburg + 2 weeks at Stanford still leaves many weeks of no plans. And, with Henry - - idle hands ARE the devil's workshop. Any one got any other suggestions???

All things new again

2011-02-03T11:14:00.000-08:00

I have no idea why, but I decided it was time for a face-lift. Idle hands are the devil's workshop I guess. 'Cept right now my hands aren't idle. Might could be that I can't leave well enough alone. (See boys nodding vigorously in agreement).

I also switched over to some new updated swank posting system that is supposed to make posting oh-so-much easier and creative. Hmmm. Right now it all looks pretty much the same to me. Rumor has it that it makes loading up photos easier. Guess we'll wait and see about that. There's much afoot at the CMR so there'll be some photos on their way.

The ~~one thing~~ main thing I have been looking for is this strike-out feature. Don't know when I'll use it - - but it's cool knowing it's there.

So here's to my new blog face. And remember, if you aren't inclined to do anything worthwhile - - just fool around with your fonts. Words to live by.

CMR Update 01/29 : Plaster, Stone and Heat

2011-02-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

There was a whole lot of plaster sanding happening over at the CMR this week. Our visit on Saturday was a little like stepping in Charlie Sheen's living room. White powder spread on every surface (heh heh heh). To big George's disappointment, we didn't see any hookers.

Fans a 'blowing all around to get these walls dried - -

Henry realized that if he runs around the pool room he could see all his foot prints. He also later climbed up on the scaffolding to check out the view (and leave his mark).

Hallway view from in front of Henry's bedroom down to George the Younger's bedroom. Nice visual of all the powder... amazing. I'm wondering how they clean all this up? Humongous vacuum?

The drywall along the stairs was trimmed down to it's final height. I'm pretty sure it's now ready for the railing installation. We finally got the "ruling" from the "code inspector Gods" - - and it doesn't look like we will need to extend the railing at the bottom of the steps. This decision took 2 whole weeks. 2 inspectors, 2 people reviewing code books and 1 angry home owner. My hatred for the city inspectors continues to grow with each passing week. They make everything from installing railings to electrical panels to type of light bulbs not only frustrating, but illogical.

Case in point? In the laundry room there is a big closet, only we can't call it a closet because the electrical panel is in there, as well as access to the back of the rack that will hold the stereo/TV equipment (lots of wires) - so we need to call it a "room." As I mentioned the electrical panel is in the "room." The "room" will have doors that close it off from the laundry area. You know - - just like closet doors, but not closet doors cause this is a "room." The electrical inspector came out several weeks ago and said he thought we should move the entire electrical panel out of the "room." Why? Because there was a possibility that some one could stack boxes or put shelves in front of the electrical panel. When GC Paul asked him why this was different than placing the electrical panel in the garage where people could obviously stack things in front of it - he stumped the inspector. We don't know whether the final electrical inspector will be as dense, but suffice to say, we're not moving the electrical panel. I'm going to make a little warning sign that just says, "Don't Stack Shit Here."

Our lava stone/rock has been delivered. This belongs in the atrium and on the front stairs. There are stacks and stacks of it. Seems excessive - but I'm no stone installer. We'll keep any extra to use as pavers in the back yard some where.

The complex and completely un-intuitive (is that a word?) radiant heating system in nearly all connected up. It's crazy. Just plain crazy. Plus the box to the sophisticated water heater that will provide hot water for both the floors and our sinks and showers has been delivered and the box is enormous. Hopefully it's just a lot of packing materials. If not, I think it is "boiler sized."

Remember when the concrete front steps were poured in December? These are not those. These are new-new concrete front steps that replaced the previously poured front steps. GC Paul said that the old-new concrete front steps had bowed a little in the center of each step. Somewhere about 1/2 inch out from the edges. Since we're putting that nice lava rock (earlier photo) on top of the concrete steps and it will overhang about a 1/2 on each step - it's got to be even. I feel bad for the concrete guys - - but I am sure this isn't the first time for them.

Wood stain / color continues to dog us. Upstairs the wood is Oak (or something like that - - could be ash, could be oak, could be ? It mostly looks like Oak). Our initial objective was to make the downstairs match the upstairs. But this is problematic since we really aren't sure what the wood upstairs is and it's been stained/painted to some really obscure and tragically-impossible-to-match finish. We have tried to get the cabinetry guy to match it - - but it's been illusive to date. Some nonsense about the EPA banning certain kinds of carcinogenic chemicals that were previously used to make the stains. Why the nerve of those guys trying to keep kids safe. I'm trying to match wood here for Pete's Sake. What do I care about a little brain damage down the road?

To add further complication we now have: new birch closet doors, new fir interior doors, new fir windows (with some pine), and we have intended to use pine as trim. We are also going to have these pretty dang big "walls 'o wood" in both the rumpus room and the pool room and large cabinets in the open area. What to do? What to do?

I asked GC Paul if he would be able to get me a "sample" of the birch (since the windows and some doors are already installed). My thought was that this would help me visualize the different woods together. I burst out laughing when I saw the birch sample....

Yup, that's a double birch closet door in a pine frame. Obviously the merits of birch are illuminated - but you have to admit it's kinda hard to move that bad boy sample around to compare it to the fir and oak.

Right now, we are leaning toward doing the cabinetry in Yellow Birch (very heywood-esque for those in the mid-century know). Jury is still out. But, we got a BIG sample of white birch. Yes, we do.

And finally, this past visit to the CMR brought our first family guests to the CMR construction site. My mom and her husband Gerry came to visit. They are on a 5 week "tour of CA and AZ" and stopped by to see us. Mom had seen the house before we actually bought it. She was amazed at the downstairs space. Much bigger than she could have imagined. It was great to see them - - although I suspect Grandpa Gerry wasn't exactly thrilled when we all piled back in his car covered in plaster dust :) He took it pretty well for a man who loves cars.

We're down to the details - and the house is really shaping up. The next weeks are going to be a whole lot of fun while we install the design-y stuff. Stuff we've painstakenly selected, ordered and had shipped over these last many months. Paints, lights, tile, cabinetry (once we figure out the color??), railings, wine cabinet and my nifty marmoleum floor in the laundry room. 6 weeks and counting to completion and then 2 weeks to get the inspectors out and convince them that we did everything right. Oh, yeah, and I've got to make the sign.

Wonka Vision

2011-01-27T13:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a few weeks since I got my new eyes. I'm absolutely loving it this whole mono-vision gig - - mostly. I've had to go and get different lens to try twice. Both times I need to get them stronger. Stronger on BOTH sides - - so the difference between the two corrections has grown considerably. More magnification right eye. Less magnification left eye. The first pair made me want to throw up in Target. I could focus on anything anywhere. Now - - much better!

I can see lots of stuff now. I've pretty much conquered inserting and extricating those slippery little discs (fine - - that's an exaggeration, but I'm no longer scratching my corneas every time I attempt to remove them). I am over the moon about my ability to go through time and space reading crap that I never could read without searching around for my glasses. It is freedom - - wonderful freedom.

When I was washing the dishes the other night, I realized that the plates we have been using for some time now have a darling little buffalo on the underside. I, of course, knew that they were called "buffalo china" - - which means they are sort of like plain old diner-ware - - but I had absolutely no friggin idea that there was a little bison rendered on the back. Who knew?

The flip side is that I also realize that I need to pluck my eyebrows more carefully a little more often. Who knew that there were lots of little teeny blondish colored hairs there too? Weird.

Driving - - well driving is an exercise in adjustment. Sure, you can see far. But with only one eye. Sure you can see the dashboard too. But only with one eye. Yesterday I realized that when turning slight left - - and having the rim of the windshield separating the vision of my two eyes that everything to one side was crystal clear. Everything to the other may well have been smeared with Vaseline. And while this weirdly "works" for the most part - - some times I think it might be better if I had the full power of two eyes when driving. (And I kind think that perhaps my fellow drivers might also wish for the same thing...)

Today I went and got some driving glasses - - which are also called "movie" glasses. This was a tad disconcerting as I kept thinking that the level of visual vigilance should be higher while driving than while sitting in a large dark room watching Mama Mia and chomping down on popcorn. Perhaps if a person does come in requesting "movie glasses" the optician has a moral obligation to also suggest that person might also considering using them while operating a large fast moving hunk of metal. I hope so.

All these driving glasses do it correct my already corrected eye in the complete opposite direction. I'm thinking that if I ever try to use them when I don't have my contacts in - I should be able to see Mars fairly clearly on a nice evening. Going from "can't read a damn thing" to "I can read that street sign down the road" is a far piece of correction distance.....

And come to think of it? Now that I will have both "movie" and "driving" glasses, if the occasion should ever arise when I need to drive while simultaneously watching a movie on a large screen - - well, I'll be cooking with gas....

CMR: What a difference a day makes

2011-01-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

Or in some cases - - what a difference a week makes.

Big holes covered in plywood become amazing wonderful windows:

Jan 15:

Jan 22:

Crappy looking drywall inserts start to look like real walls in the master bath:

Jan 15:

Jan 22:

Invisibilty becomes the word of the day between seeing where the old door used to be and seeing smooth seamless plaster in the library:

Jan 15:

Jan 22:

Exterior waterproofing is covered with siding:

Jan 15:

Jan 22:

And sometimes, just sometimes it really does all happen in a day! From Saturday morning to Sunday morning A raw gaping hole becomes a door!

Jan 22:

Jan 23rd:

Now the atrium is filled with three new, beauteous french doors and one crazy-nice supersized rectangular window....

This week also brought a little miscommunication in the "window department." Middle of the week, GC Paul reported that the hall windows had come in early. There was much rejoicing!! Early is GOOD! This information resulted in a quick emergency mobilization of the demolition guy who came over on Wednesday afternoon to rip out all the old hall windows. his expertise left us with a very large, super airy hole in the hallway in front of the master bedroom door. Pretty hole, huh?

Bad news? The window people lied. Not all the windows were ready to be inserted in to the obviously window-wanting holes. Only one lone window was ready.... here it is leaning in the living room (beside the new atrium door). It can't be inserted until all the windows are here. No news on when the rest will be ready. In the meantime, our hallway has a very open feel to it. Open as in literally open....

Salmon Nilla

2011-01-21T18:20:00.000-08:00

The CMR has finally reached the juncture when GC Paul has put me on notice that I need to settle on interior paint colors. This is good news. The bad news? Actually selecting the paint colors.

I've been spending hours in places called "House of Color" and "Hugh's Hues." The array of colors is staggering. Unfortunately, we're mind-stuck on colors that we used in our house in London by a British paint company named "Farrow and Ball." This is our albatross. Why? You can get F&B in SF. You "simply" have to import it from Canada. A gallon of this luxurious elixir costs roughly the equivalent of our weekly grocery bill. How many gallons do we need? Buckets of gallons. Simply buckets.

George the Elder - - like a dog with a bone - - is now fixated on just getting Benjamin Moore to computer generate the color mix that matches the microscopic color chip color from a very loved and worn F&B Colour chart. MY first tact is to just try to get a close approximation by holding up the wee chips to hundreds of slightly larger chips in various lights in various stores. I'm not entirely convinced that my way is the best way. But, it's my way and I need to defend it to the bitter end.

The weirdest thing about paint and looking at hundreds of paint chips, charts and sample cards? Hands down, it's paint color names. They make the folks that name Opi nail polish look like simpletons. "Big Apple Red" is child's play compared to some of these titles. I want to personally meet the people who's job it is to name paints. The person that can see a shade of pinky brown and settle on the name "Dead Salmon?" Who is he? Did he spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting that shade to various deceased water creatures and eventually decide it was without-a-doubt salmon? When he named the color "Pigeon" did he chase a flock of flying rats around Trafalgar Square. Did he capture one and hold up the smidgen of colour just to feel confident in his choice??

And what's with all the mists? Sea Mist, Star Mist, Gray Mist, Morning Mist, Evening Mist and Midnight Mist? Who knew it was so damn moist and foggy out there in the color world?

And then there's the food colors (beyond the dead salmon): Burnt Peanut, Dill Pickle, Sunny Yam and Elegant Eggplant. Most these shades can't even be used in a kitchen.

Our current color selections: Straw, Stone White, Pigeon (yup, really), Storm, Steam and Atmospheric. Dolphin is on the short list - but we ruled out Tumeric. Straw isn't really available here in the US, but Citrone is. Stone White isn't either, so they've named it's Western neighbor Field Moss. Pigeon, not surprisingly, has no parallel. Only the Brits, and it appears us, are willing to paint a wall or two the colour of unloved rodents with wings.

We now have a number of large sheets of paper painted in various colors. We have ones that are made by Benjamin Moore (brilliant idea to make HUGE 16 x 16 paint chips!!) and we have ones that we made ourselves this afternoon from paint samples, a large roll of white butcher paper and the world's cheapest paintbrushes (yes - - unlike the professional Ben Moore ones, these have a little texture in the way of bristles embedded in them). Tomorrow we will head to the CMR to make some decisions.

Bring on the Salmon and the Stone. Let's pick colour!!!

CMR Update 01-15: Let there be MORE light

2011-01-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

Week 6,027 (or what feels that way - it's actually only week 32 - but in "doing-laundry-at-the-laundra-mat-years" it stretches waaaaay out) shed a little more light on the subject. Notice new window on bottom left. That's Henry's bedroom window. Cool beans indeed!

More exterior work meant starting to install some of the beauteous exterior pine siding. If only there was a way to make either the old siding look brandy new - - or make the new siding look weathered and aged - well, that would be ideal. But GC Paul assures us that no one will be able to tell the difference between the two when we are all done. Me? I'm gonna play that wait and see card. Still, gotta admit that it's thrilling to watch it become a bit more of a house again unlike the war zone construction site it's been since they shoved a couple of steel beams totally through the house.

Just like the first window, the second window makes Henry's room look bright and shiny. I'm considering not putting any window treatments in here. That would sure get his happy butt up a little earlier now wouldn't it? In the upper left portion of this pic you can see that Henry's escape route to the upstairs is still in motion. He still thinks that we are going to close it up. Instead, GC Paul still has plans to install him a little secret ladder....

This is a simply another view from the bottom hallway (right in front of George the Younger's room) up to Henry's door way. The light is SO much better than we had imagined!!

Moving upstairs, the door-that-was-supposed-to-be-removed-but-was-forgotten-to-be-removed - - well, it's now removed. So, our teensy-little master bath is now just for us and cannot be accessed by any other way but through the master bedroom. Just for kicks, it's interesting to remember that for nearly a year all four of us shared this bath together. Just for kicks, I am going to announce my unadulterated GLEE that I don't have to do that any more. Boys are pigs. Their aim sucks at everything from peeing to spitting. I know I'll still have to clean up their bathroom - - but at least I can close their bathroom door and let them step in their own pee spots if I'm not in the mood.

Here's the other side of that door where it used to open up in to what used to be the boys' bedroom. Of course, now the boys' bedroom is the library / office where we also usurped the space in the wee tiny Bindery room. Saw the final plans for the lots and lots and lots of shelves that will line these walls. What would a library be without lots of books?

This is the view from the upper hallway down to the kitchen. See nice rectangle all ready for the window? See nice big space all ready for big glass doors to the atrium? And, we just found out today that the hall windows (the ones you can kinda see in the right side of the photo) have also been delivered!! The replacement of these windows was a 3Q game decision. We knew they were old. We knew they had some rotted wood. We just didn't want to accept it. In the end - change order #17 was born.

This is the highly complicated and complex operating system for the radiant floor heat and the hot water heater. In order to operate this system to its highest efficiency I am going to need to return to college to get my engineering degree. As this will take at a minimum of 4 years - - and remember, we're talking about me here - - the one who does algebraic equations by drawing stick figures and smiley faces - - it is likely to take oodles longer. Instead, I intend to ask GC Paul for a big sign with neon flashing arrows that says "For More Heat Turn Here."

Here, in the utility closet (which in order to meet code, must be called a utility "ROOM") are the terminus of all the orange radiant heating tubes from all over the house. Some how someone, much smarter than me, will surgically connect all of these tubes to the corresponding valve on the above pictured very complex operating board. It's stuff like this where you know you are getting your moneys worth. Stuff like breaking through your old bathroom tile with a sledge hammer? Not so much. I can wield a sledge hammer with the best of 'em.

You know those cool theaters called black boxes? Everything in them is black and movable and infinitely artistically open-ended? Now that all the dry wall is in - - well we've got our own version. The rumpus room / pool room is now officially the White Room....

This photo is simply for posterity (or evidence should things not go the way they say it will go). Underneath all this white crap and blobs are our very beautiful polished concrete floors. I have been assured that everything on it is water soluble and will be easily wiped away to once again restore them to their former luster. Yesterday, Henry brought home a smallish 1'x2' segment of dry wall. In the span of approximately 2 hours - - and various "experiments" later - - he managed to get dry wall schmootz all over the kitchen (walls and all), as well as to create a big pile of it in pieces and scraps from dust-size to small rock-size on the back patio. It took me approximately 2 days to almost clean it up. Easily wiped? I. don't. think. so. Hence the photo for posterity (or evidence).

This is a perfect shot of the wooden skylights. Imagine the light. Imagine being able to see right up on to the atrium behind it. Imagine being 14 and having women in short dresses standing up on the atrium? Hmmm. Perhaps we need to rethink?

Another view of the skylights from the inner corner of the rumpus room. See nice light coming from stairs to kitchen? Try to visualize that light, plus the window that's going to be there, plus the glass doors and SHAZAM!! Amazing what a little digging and a lot of windows can do.

And finally, an RIP to our old porch beam. It's laying here on the front walk ready to go to the old compost pile in the sky. I went over today and GC Paul helped me take off the numbers. We'll add them to the little history niche in the garage where the original building permits are going to be preserved. Yet another small reminder of the history of this house that we are making our own changes to. It'll be a tiny wee "195" time capsule.

So, we continue to march onward. I was told today that we need to be ready with all our interior paint colors by next week!?! What??? I was kind of speechless. Paint Colors??? We can choose PAINT COLORS??? Per-itty big change from deciding whether or not to jam steel soldier beams behind the back of the house to keep the soil from caving in, eh?? Sheesh -- what a difference 6,027 weeks can make....

Photo Ops

2011-01-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

We're not big family photo folks. It's not that we don't like to take pictures, but the thought of getting all gussied up and standing/sitting/posing for photos isn't something we put on the calendar often. We had a photographer take some family shots while we were in Tokyo. Very casual, very candid. She was great.

Recently, two things came to pass that made us realize that perhaps it was time for an updated professional family shot. The first was that in the Tokyo photos Henry is 3. He is no larger than our family dog now standing on his hind legs. Currently, Henry is standing almost eye to eye with me. The passage of time waits for no man. The second was that both of my sisters and I were going to be together for thanksgiving for the first time in a couple of decades. This meant that all the cousins were going to be together for the first time in a couple of decades. This meant that the timing was perfect to get them together for photos to give to my mother for Christmas. An auspicious alignment of the planets, so to speak.

So the day after Thanksgiving we donned our requisite 21st century black and white (I believe that this is kind of an unwritten law now for family photographs - Thou Shalt Stick with the Monochromatic Color Theme) - and headed out in to the Arizona morning sun for smiles.

In my mind, I equate posed photos with Olin Mills. You know - the kind of photos that show up on web-sites called "The Worst Family Portraits EVER in the history of man" or something like that. But, you know what? We like these. We really like these.

And so, without any further ado - the photos of The Wisniewski Family circa late 2010....

Oh, yeah - - we did get lots of others of all the cousins and the sisters together - - but we got these too. We got so caught up in the whole affair that there are 9,027 odd different poses of groups of cousins, groups of siblings (both young and old) family shots, kid shots, potential engagement photos, and shots of dogs. I'd show them all to you, but in a couple of the big group shots, there are some very wide smiles - indicating hysterical laughter. These happened when I audibly farted. Who's the wise guy that scheduled photos the morning after Thanksgiving dinner that included brussel sprouts? You're going to look at these pictures with a whole different eye now - - aren't you?

CMR Update 01-09: Let the Sun Shine

2011-01-13T11:03:00.000-08:00

After weeks of rain, after many clouds - Sunday dawned sunny and bright for our first up close and personal view of: A WINDOW!!!

Technically the view was of six windows, but they're all in one room. Still. Check out the views inside and out. These are the windows in what will be George the Younger's lair. Check out that these windows exit to ground level. Check out that these will be the windows of a teenager. Know that these can, and will if necessary, be nailed shut :)

Exterior from street:

Interior views. It is incredible how much of a difference a little outside light makes. These windows even provide light to the hallway outside George the Younger's door. There is no door yet, but it will eventually be made of reeded glass, so the light will always be available.

In other progress news: This is the downstairs bathroom. George the Elder and I agree that this might be one of our minor design mistakes. It's going to be a cool bathroom, but we're thinking it's going to be a bit narrow. Could have stolen some space from Henry's room which is a nice size and could been made a wee bit smaller to get another foot in the bath. Alas.

This is a closer view of what will be our shower "niches." There is one on each side of the shower. They will be tiled and will eliminate the need for any kind of shower caddy. All manner of Axe products can be stored in these niches. There are two. Two boys = two niches.

Work continues upstairs to remove any traces of the obsolete forced air heating system that has been replaced with the radiant heat. See ya later ali-grate-ors!

Here's a photo of one of the older baths upstairs that turned out to have a little water leak issue. When they turned on the water they found that it was dripping below. When it was rat slab underneath no one would have known - except maybe the garden gnome who made his home there. Now it sits directly above the lower level electrical panel in the laundry room. Water+electricity=not good. So, they tore out some tile to get to the pipes. Word is still out on how close we can come to matching this vintage tile. Remodeling the upstairs bathrooms is currently slated for Phase 4, meaning it will happen when our grand children are entering medical school. And we don't even have any grandchildren yet. But, yes, full remodel or no - that lovely wall paper is going the way of the dodo. It's just simply brutal.

Stopped by yesterday and saw one more window going in Henry's room. Oodles of excitement. We only have 5 more to go and, of course the mother of all windows - the sky light to be installed. Loads of doors on the schedule, loads of lights, more dry wall, stone in the courtyard and entry way, tile for the bath, cool marmoleum for the laundry room and about a gazillion other little things to be done.

The good news is we are starting to get down to some of the little stuff that GC Paul calls CMIPs. These are the little things that occur during construction (and in our case are some 60 year old weirdies) that need a little somethin-somethin. These are "Contractor Make It Pretty" (CMIP).

And finally, we got the new bid for our interior and exterior railings. We were looking for a streamline mid-century look. For what it's going to cost to get these suckers built and installed - - the word "streamline" can no longer be used. Unless that word can be applied to our outstanding bank balance once we pay the metal worker.